r back as 1942, a NorternUniversity astrop named Ralped sucy in anarticle in Popular Astronomy magazine. (icle to run it.) And at least tists, tronomerErnst ?pik and t and Nobel laureate  for tion at various times. Even among paleontologists it  unkno Oregon State University, M. . de Laubenfels, ing in tology, ually anticipated ting t t adeat from space, and in 1970 t of tological Society, De ty t an extraterrestrial impact may  knoinction.

    As if to underline just ime, in 1979 audio actually produced a movie called Meteor (“It’s five miles ’scoming at 30,000 m.p.o arring alieood, Karl Malden, and a very large rock.

    So  a meeting of tion for t of Science, t tinction taken place over millions of years as part of some slosuddenly in a single explosive event, it s have come as a shock.

    But it did. It icularly in tological community,as an outrageous heresy.

    “ell, you o remember,” Asaro recalls, “t eurs in ter specializing in paleomagnetism, Luis ologists t ’s not terribly surprising t t embrace itimmediately.” As Luis Alvarez joked: “e  alicense.”

    But tally ab in tt terrestrial processes ural orysince time of Lyell. By tastrop of fas iterally unt geologists tating impact  tific religion.”

    Nor did it  Luis Alvarez emptuous of paleontologists and tributions to scientific kno very good scientists. tamp collectors,” e in times in an article t stings yet.

    Opponents of ternative explanations for ts—for instance, t ted by prolonged volcani