Almost 11 million years ago, a large asteroid slammed into Earth, somewhere around Australia. It could have gouged a crater more than 15 miles wide, and devastated life across tens of thousands of square miles. So far, though, the only traces of it are 14 tiny glass beads. Combined, they weigh just 53 grams – as much as a slice of bread.

The beads are known as tektites. They formed from melted rock and sand that was blasted into the sky. Tiny blobs were shaped into balls by their passage through the air.

Tektites are found all across the planet. Most of them are associated with a few major impacts. The region where a group of related tektites is found is called a strewn field. Five confirmed fields had been identified.

One of them stretches across Australia and Asia. Decades ago, scientists identified eight tektites as members of that field, which was created by an impact about three-quarters of a million years ago.

But a recent analysis found otherwise. Scientists conducted extensive studies of those beads, along with six others. They found that the beads were related to each other – but not to the known strewn field. Instead, they formed a new field, which stretches almost 600 miles across Australia. The beads are all the same age. So they formed in the same impact – 11 million years ago. But no one has yet found a crater – only a tiny handful of beads from a possible cosmic impact.

Script by Damond Benningfield