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Scientists have uncovered a trove of tiny glass beads they call “spherules”, particles that turned into vaporized remnants resulting from an asteroid that may have hit the earth 3.46 billion years ago.

The size of the asteroid is believed to be somewhere around 12 to 18 miles (20 to 30 kilometers) wide, the impact of which would have been Apocalyptic. The size was based on the analysis made on the spherules. All these were uncovered by Andrew Glikson and Arthur Hickman from the Australian National University.

"The impact would have triggered earthquakes orders of magnitude greater than terrestrial earthquakes. It would have caused huge tsunamis and would have made cliffs crumble," said Andrew Glikson.

If true, this means that the alleged asteroid may have been bigger than the one that wiped out the dinosaur species 66 million years ago.

While drilling for the Geological Survey of Western Australia, the two obtained drilling cores from some of the oldest known sediments on Earth. They were found in a place called the “Marble Bar”, preserved in a sediment layer originally on the ocean floor.

Glikson believes that the asteroid was the second oldest when lined up to the other ones that may have hit the earth. The fact that the particles were found sandwiched in between two volcanic layers helped scientists to arrive at the precise date.

When the “spherules” were tested, they were found to contain a mix of elements that included platinum, nickel and chromium which are incidentally the same ones found in asteroids.

Glikson is no stranger when it comes to finding answers tied up with ancient impacts. He has been trotting the world for over 20 years and coming across the spherules, he had the immediate suspicion that something ‘big’ landed on earth from space.

While claiming it was the second oldest asteroid to hit the earth, other similar ones may have occurred but have yet to be discovered since asteroid craters from the period had been obliterated by volcanic activity and tectonic movements.

 “This is just the tip of the iceberg. We’ve only found evidence for 17 impacts older than 2.5 billion years, but there could have been hundreds,” says Glikson.