The asteroid that struck the Earth 66 million years ago devastated life across the planet, wiping out the dinosaurs and other organisms in a hail of fire and catastrophic climate […]
Extinction events
Posted inAtmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Extinction events, Fossils & Paleontology, Status Report
Mass Extinction Coincided With Expanded Continental Margin Euxinia During the Cambrian Age 4
Earth’s biosphere witnessed the first major extinction event in the Phanerozoic during the Cambrian Age 4, with a genera loss up to ∼45%. The traditional view suggested that marine anoxia […]
Posted inAnalog Studies, Away Teams & Field Reports, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Caves, Craters, Mountains, Subsurface, Lava Tubes, Exploration Gear & Tech, Extinction events, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Habitable Zones, Lava / magma ocean / Volcanic Worlds, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Mars, Microbiology & Virology, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release, Sample Return
Life On Lava: How Microbes Colonize New Habitats
Life has a way of bouncing back, even after catastrophic events like forest fires or volcanic eruptions. While nature’s resilience to natural disasters has long been recognized, not much is […]
Posted inAtmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Comets and Asteroids, Extinction events, Habitable Zones, Impact events, Status Report
Planetary Impacts: Friend Or Foe?
Planetary impact events have profoundly influenced the origin of life and the habitability of Earth in both constructive and destructive ways.
Posted inAstrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Extinction events, Habitable Zones, Press Release, Stellar Cartography
Close Brush With Two Hot Stars Left A Mark Just Beyond Our Solar System
Nearly 4.5 million years ago, two large, hot stars brushed tantalizingly close to Earth’s sun. They left behind a trace in the clouds of gas and dust that swirl just […]
Posted inAtmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Comets and Asteroids, Extinction events, Interstellar, Status Report
On The Coincidence Between The Close Passage Of HD7977 And The Pliocene-Pleistocene Transition
The Oort Cloud’s dynamical evolution is significantly influenced by both the galactic tide and stellar flybys.
Posted inAstrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Extinction events, Impact events, Status Report
Atmospheric Collapse And re-inflation Through Impacts For Terrestrial Planets Around M Dwarfs
Detection of an atmosphere around a terrestrial exoplanet will be a major milestone in the field, but our observational capacities are biased towards to tidally locked, close-in planets orbiting M-dwarf […]
Posted inAtmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Extinction events, Fossils & Paleontology, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Nomenclature, Systematics, Natural History, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
Neutron Scanning Of Coral Fossils Reveals Earth’s Hidden Climate History
A University of Sydney student has developed a completely new way to peer inside coral fossils to recover lost records of past climate change.
Posted inAtmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Extinction events, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Habitable Zones, Impact events, Status Report
Re-accretion of Giant Impact Ejecta Can Drive Significant Atmospheric Erosion on Terrestrial Planets
Giant impacts, the collisions between planetary embryos, play a crucial role in sculpting the planets and their orbital architectures.
Posted inBiogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Comets and Asteroids, Extinction events, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Habitable Zones, Impact events, Meteorites & Asteroids, Status Report
The Depletion Of The Asteroid Belt And The Impact History Of The Earth
We have evaluated the rate at which the asteroid belt is losing material, and how it splits between macroscopic bodies and meteoritic dust.