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 […]
Extinction events
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.
Posted inAnalog Studies, Astrogeology, Away Teams & Field Reports, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Caves, Craters, Mountains, Subsurface, Lava Tubes, Extinction events, Impact events, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Mars, Press Release
Geology And Mars Analog Potential Of The < 2.7-billion-year-old Miralga Impact Structure, North Pole Dome, Pilbara Craton, Australia
North Pole Dome (Pilbara Craton, Western Australia) contains unique geological analogs to early Earth and Mars.
Posted inBiosignatures & Paleobiology, Extinction events, Fossils & Paleontology, Impact events, Press Release
Fossils Shed Light On The Era Before Earth’s Largest Mass Extinction
An international team of paleontologists has spent more than 15 years excavating and studying fossils from Africa to expand our understanding of the Permian, a period of Earth’s history that […]
Posted inEnceladus, Europa, Extinction events, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Impact events, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Meteorites & Asteroids, Press Release, Titan, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
Impacts on Ocean Worlds Are Sufficiently Frequent and Energetic to Be of Astrobiological Importance
Evidence for the beneficial role of impacts in the creation of urable or habitable environments on Earth prompts the question of whether meteorite impacts could play a similar role at […]
Posted inAtmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Extinction events, Fossils & Paleontology, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Press Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
Fossilized Oysters Hold The Key To Mass Extinction
In the first and only reconstruction of ocean pH ever carried out, new research from the University of St Andrews and the University of Birmingham has discovered that a rapid […]