Baptistina family

298 Baptistina (center), one of the largest presumed remnants of the Baptistina family. Here it is shown flanked on either side by two bright stars in the background.

The Baptistina family (FIN: 403) is an asteroid family of more than 2500 members that was probably produced by the breakup of an asteroid 170 km (110 mi) across 80 million years ago following an impact with a smaller body. The two largest presumed remnants of the parent asteroid are main-belt asteroids 298 Baptistina and 1696 Nurmela. The Baptistina family is part of the larger Flora clan.[1][2] It was briefly speculated that the Chicxulub impactor was part of the Baptistina family of asteroids, but this was disproven in 2011 using data from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE).

The Baptistina family consists of darkly colored asteroids and meteoroids in similar orbits. Baptistina broke up into thousands of fragments about 80 million years ago.[3]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Alvarez-Candal-2006 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Nesvorny-2014 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Plotner, Tammy (2011). "Did Asteroid Baptistina Kill the Dinosaurs? Think other WISE..." Universe Today. Retrieved 19 September 2011.