Roughly 3.26 billion years ago, Earth had a “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” moment. A monster meteor dubbed “S2”—roughly the size of four Mount Everests and up to 200 times larger than the rock that decimated the dinosaurs—crashed into our planet.

Harvard researchers found that when a meteorite nicknamed S2 paid a visit to our planet 3 billion years ago, it may have helped life flourish.

When a meteorite with the mass of four Mount Everests hit Earth 3.2 billion years ago, it caused global chaos and provided an unexpected silver lining for life.