This is on the CBS I on the World Hotel Mars episode N. I'm John Bachelor and my

colleague and co-host and co-pilot David Livingston

Dr Space Himself from the Space Show is here. We're going 66 million years back in

time to an event that is captivating and still not entirely solved but

someone helping us understand this event Simone Markey of the South Western Research Institute in Boulder is going to guide us to why we're

moving this story along. You all remember there was a dino killer, something hit the earth 66

million years ago. What it was and where it came from are two of the stories told recently in some new research.

Simone, a very good day to you. Thank you for joining us.

As I understand it, this research began in the late 20th century, a father and son suspected that there was something

to be learned from a layer that was between one dinosaur period and another non-d dinosaur period called the K-T line in the rocks.

As you dig down you can see layer after layer describing the prehistoric world.

The suspicion was based on one element

on the line in that thin line in the stratigraphy it's called

of chromium but most recently there's been a case made best of all for

Ruthenium. Please explain how it works, how the geologists and the

astrobiologists and the astronomers put this detective story

together so far. Good evening to you Simone. Yeah good evening, thanks for

having me. Yeah indeed this is an interesting event in Earth history.

As you said, 66 million years ago,

an asteroid struck the Earth and resulted

into the extinction of the dinosaurs, as well as 75% of all living species.

So it was a major event for us.

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