Scientists plan to drill 5,000 feet below the seafloor to acquire samples of the crater left by the asteroid that killed off the dinosaurs 65.6 million years ago.

The crate called Chicxulub (named after a nearby seaside village on the Yucatan peninsula.) was formed by a catastrophic asteroid crash, blamed for the extinction of the dinosaurs some 65.5 million years ago. Scientists are eager to closely examine a sample from the 125 mile-wide impact site near the Yucatan Peninsula.

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The massive impact that formed the Chicxulub crater ended the reign of dinosaurs and also left a gaping aberration in the Earth's crust. The expansive crater could hold the answer to the riddle and mysteries surrounding the asteroid impact.

Researchers plan to take the first offshore core samples from near the center of the impact crater caused by the nine mile-wide asteroid. The samples will be taken from the crater's "peak ring," which is an area of elevated rocks surrounding the crater's center.

By analyzing these features, researchers hope to gain insight into the ancient impact and the chain of events that caused one of the most significant mass extinctions in history. The samples could also reveal traces of ancient life hidden within the rocks.

"The sediments that filled in the [crater] should have the record for organisms living on the sea floor and in the water that were there for the first recovery after the mass extinction event. The hope is we can watch life come back," said lead researcher Sean Gulick of The University of Texas at Austin Institute for Geophysics.

Spring 2016 is the tentative date for the expedition that will receive about US$10 million in funding approved by the European Consortium for Ocean Research Drilling (ECORD), which is part of the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) and International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP).

TagsScientists Close to Reveal the Asteroid Impact on Dinosaur Extinction, dinosaur extinction, animal extinction, Chicxulub crater, Chicxulub, yucatan peninsula