Time Machine to…Chicxulub

One of the main reasons for traveling back in time is to answer some questions. I think a really nifty one would be to go back about 65 million years and get in a position (ideally in space) to keep an eye on the Yucatan peninsula. While waiting for something big to happen, take a little bit of time and do a rough census of the lifeforms that are planted, wandering, flying, and swimming. Then wait — maybe nudging the time machine to move things along a bit.

The critical event that would be interesting to confirm is if an asteroid hit was actually the cause of the extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs. Of course, it would be really nifty just to see what happens when the Earth suffers a major whack. Does it look anything like the SFX in the movie Deep Impact?

If there is an impact, then move up a few years and then take a new census. Did the massive extinction happen?

What if an impact doesn’t happen at any point during the estimated time? Keep taking censuses until you find the mass extinction, and then move backwards. And if there isn’t a mass extinction, but just a die-off, then that would be cool to know too.

Knowledge based on truth should never be beholding to one’s preconceptions. Whatever the true events, the record of them would be of incredible scientific import.