Space: Massive meteor shower hit Earth 800 million years ago

A massive meteor shower hit the Earth and Moon 800 million years ago, according to new research.

Scientists in Japan have been studying images captured by the Kaguya lunar orbiter and found evidence that an asteroid at least 60 miles (100 kilometres) wide, broke up in space and hurtled into the Earth-Moon System.

Examining photos of the Moon's surface has led the experts to believe the strike was thirty times more powerful than the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs.

While evidence of strikes on the Earth can be hidden by geological changes to our planet, there is almost no erosion on the Moon.

This has allowed the scientists to reconstruct the history of 60 large craters.

They also think the strike had a huge impact on life on our planet, including the Earth's climate and the origins of different animal species.

"Our new findings suggests that the flux of extra-terrestrial elements might have influenced marine biogeochemical cycles... severe perturbations to Earth's climate system, and the emergence of animals," said an expert from the Osaka University, in Japan.

That means that pieces of meteor - "extra-terrestrial elements" - could have affected chemicals and minerals in Earth's oceans, the climate and how animals evolved.

The team said the shower 800 million years ago struck Earth just before the Cryogenian period, which saw a planet-wide ice age between 720-635 million years ago.

While meteor showers are common in our atmosphere, a huge strike on a planet is not and experts say a strike of this size only happens once every 100 million years.

The research was published in the journal, Nature Communications.