World's largest asteroid impacts found in central Australia »

A 400 kilometre-wide impact zone from a huge meteorite that broke in two moments before it slammed into the Earth has been found in Central Australia. The crater from the impact millions of years ago has long disappeared. But a team of geophysicists has found the twin scars of the impacts - the largest impact zone ever found on Earth - hidden deep in the earth's crust. Lead researcher Dr Andrew Glikson from the ANU School of Archaeology and Anthropology said the impact zone was discovered during drilling as part of geothermal research, in an area near the borders of South Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory. "The two asteroids must each have been over 10 kilometres across - it would have been curtains for many life species on the planet at the time," said Dr Glikson. The revelation of such ancient violent impacts may lead to new theories about the Earth's history. "Large impacts like these may have had a far more significant role in the Earth's evolution than previously thought," Dr Glikson said.