Planets are expected to conclude their growth through a series of giant impacts: energetic, global events that significantly alter planetary composition and evolution.
Impact events
Posted inAstrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Comets and Asteroids, Impact events, Meteorites & Asteroids, Status Report
The Distribution Of Impactor Core Material During Large Impacts On Earth-like Planets
Large impacts onto young rocky planets may transform their compositions, creating highly reducing conditions at their surfaces and reintroducing highly siderophile metals to their mantles. Key to these processes is […]
Posted inExtinction events, Fossils & Paleontology, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Impact events, Plant Biology, Press Release
Flowering Plants Survived The Mass Extinction That Killed The Dinosaurs
A new study by researchers from the University of Bath (UK) and Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (Mexico) shows that flowering plants escaped relatively unscathed from the mass extinction that […]
Posted inAtmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Extinction events, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Impact events, Press Release, Terraforming & Geoengineering, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
Exoplanet Climate: It Takes Nothing To Switch From Habitable To Hell
The Earth is a wonderful blue and green dot covered with oceans and life, while Venus is a yellowish sterile sphere that is not only inhospitable but also sterile. However, […]
Posted inAstrogeology, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Fossils & Paleontology, Impact events, Press Release
Limitations Of Asteroid Crater Lakes As Climate Archives
In southern Germany just north of the Danube, there lies a large circular depression between the hilly surroundings: the Nördlinger Ries. Almost 15 million years ago, an asteroid struck this […]
Posted inAstrochemistry, Astrogeology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Comets and Asteroids, Impact events, Meteorites & Asteroids, Missions & Hardware, Status Report
Comet 81P/Wild 2: A Record of the Solar System’s Wild Youth
NASA’s Stardust mission returned rocky material from the coma of comet 81P/Wild 2 (pronounced “Vilt 2”) to Earth for laboratory study on January 15, 2006. Comet Wild 2 contains volatile […]
Posted inBiogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Icy Worlds, Impact events, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Mars, Press Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
Ice Exposing Impacts On Mars
These Mars global maps show the likely distribution of water ice buried within the upper 3 feet (1 meter) of the planet’s surface and represent the latest data from the […]
Posted inAstrogeology, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Impact events, Moon, Press Release
Mysterious Giant Blobs Of Material Near Earth’s Core
In the 1980s, geophysicists made a startling discovery: two continent-sized blobs of unusual material were found deep near the center of the Earth, one beneath the African continent and one […]
Posted inAstrochemistry, Astrogeology, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Impact events, Moon, Status Report
Origin Of The Moon And Lunar Water
Three principal concepts regarding lunar formation have been examined: the accretion hypothesis, the mega-impact theory, and the multi-impact model.
Posted inAstrochemistry, Astrogeology, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Ceres, Impact events, Press Release
Hypervelocity Impact Experiments Probe The Origin Of Organics On The Dwarf Planet Ceres
One of the most exciting findings from NASA’s Dawn mission is that Ceres, the largest object in the asteroid belt that lies between Mars and Jupiter, hosts complex organics.