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Scientists solved a long-standing mystery by confirming that the Silverpit Crater beneath the North Sea was created by a 160-meter-wide asteroid collision roughly 43 to 46 million years ago, not by the previously assumed solar storm cause, ScienceDaily reported on October 21, 2026. The violent impact 700 meters below the seabed generated a 1.5-kilometer-high column of rock and water and triggered a tsunami exceeding 100 meters in height. The discovery rewrites early space weather history and highlights ongoing threats to modern power grids and satellites.