Today’s a special day for astronomy enthusiasts: It’s both Asteroid Day and Meteor Watch Day. To celebrate, we’re at the rim of a 560-foot-deep crater with a 3,900-foot diameter, creatively called "Meteor Crater." (Scientists call it Barringer Crater, for the name of the man who first theorized it was a meteorite-impact crater.) Some 50,000 years ago, parts of an asteroid fell to Earth here, in a location just east of Flagstaff, Arizona. And today, we can see just how devastating the collision must have been to leave a basin so large.
The aftermath of a meteorite
Today in History
More Desktop Wallpapers:
-
International Day of Human Space Flight
-
Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri
-
Fall comes to Pando
-
A cliffside harbor in Sardinia
-
Remembering the Arizona
-
A look at Uranus, seventh planet from the sun
-
The Bazaruto Archipelago of Mozambique
-
Burrowing owls
-
Muskoxen in Dovre-Sunndalsfjella National Park, Norway
-
Red-leaf hunting in Japan
-
National Library Week
-
American bison, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming
-
A wild and scenic scene
-
Kjell Henriksen Observatory
-
A national icon
-
Alam-Pedja Nature Reserve, Estonia
-
Punakaiki on South Island, New Zealand
-
Bandon Beach in Bandon, Oregon
-
Goðafoss waterfall, Iceland
-
Native American Heritage Month
-
Bearded reedlings in Flevoland
-
Busy building wetlands
-
A dying breed of tree thrives in an American park
-
American bison
-
Arbor Day
-
It s World Poetry Day
-
An island in the Highlands
-
Cranborne Chase, England
-
Lobster tales
-
A sizzling summit hides in the clouds
Bing Wallpaper Gallery

