Ullapool - (Ass Mess): A giant gas-bearing meteorite that smashed into waters off the Scottish coast about 1.2 billion years ago brought the North Sea's fabled cash-cow of liquid natural gas to the area.
Oxbridge researchers say the celestial body may have broken off a gas super-giant like Jupiter and been guided to Earth by magnetic emissions resonating from the Moon.
"Of course if there had been any observers of the phenomenon in Scotland one point two billion years ago they would have been vaporised instantly," Prof V Smart said today.
"No one could have possibly lived to tell the tale.
"But with today's high tech equipment we can pretty well second-guess them anyway."
The report says that judging by the massive marine crater left behind the huge impact must have obliterated vast areas of what is now the North Sea.
"In some ways it is a great pity that the asteroid didn't swerve by a degree or two and do us all a favor by landing in Grimsby."
