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:
-
Presidents Day in America’s front yard
-
Lake Pehoé, Torres del Paine National Park, Chile
-
Tiny fliers head south
-
World Nature Conservation Day
-
World Migratory Bird Day
-
Patriot Day
-
Earthrise on Moon Day
-
Whanganui National Park, Retaruke, New Zealand
-
National Trails Day
-
Oktoberfest, Munich, Germany
-
The mountaintop of toppled gods
-
Westerheversand Lighthouse
-
Celebrating 54 years of Capitol Reef National Park
-
White Desert National Park, Egypt
-
Gazing upon Portraits of Change
-
Patriot Day
-
International Talk Like a Pirate Day
-
International Whale Shark Day
-
Cheers! It’s National Wine Day
-
Corona Arch near Moab, Utah
-
International Day of Color
-
World Water Day
-
Jeju Island, South Korea
-
Mute swans
-
The parenting of a piping plover
-
Three Natural Bridges, Wulong Karst, China
-
Merry Christmas!
-
The Cordillera de la Sal in the Cordillera Domeyko Range of Chile
-
Veterans Day
-
National Bison Day
Bing Wallpaper Gallery

