With the number of confirmed rocky exoplanets increasing steadily, their characterisation and the search for exoplanetary biospheres is becoming an increasingly urgent issue in astrobiology. We aim to investigate the […]
Impact events
Posted inImpact events, Press Release
When Dinosaurs Died So Did Forests And Tree-dwelling Birds
Sixty-six million years ago, the world burned. An asteroid crashed to Earth with a force one million times larger than the largest atomic bomb, causing the extinction of the dinosaurs. […]
Posted inImpact events, Press Release
Site of Asteroid Impact Changed the History of Life on Earth
An asteroid, also known as the Chicxulub Impactor, hit Earth some 66 million years ago, causing a crater 180 km wide. The impact of the asteroid heated organic matter in […]
Posted inImpact events, Press Release
Dinosaur-Killing Asteroid Impact Cooled Earth's Climate More Than Previously Thought
The Chicxulub asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs likely released far more climate-altering sulfur gas into the atmosphere than originally thought, according to new research. A new study makes […]
Posted inImpact events, Press Release
Moment of Impact: A Journey Into The Chicxulub Crater
When the Chicxulub asteroid slammed into Earth about 66 million years ago, it obliterated 80 percent of Earth’s species, blasted out a crater 200 kilometers across, and signaled an abrupt […]
Posted inExtinction events, Impact events, Press Release
Dinosaur-killing Asteroid Could Have Caused 2 Years of Darkness
Tremendous amounts of soot, lofted into the air from global wildfires following a massive asteroid strike 66 million years ago, would have plunged Earth into darkness for nearly two years, […]
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Earth is Bombarded at Random
Do mass extinctions, like the fall of the dinosaurs, and the formation of large impact craters on Earth occur together at regular intervals? “This question has been under discussion for […]
Posted inImpact events, Press Release
A Tale of Clusters: No Resolvable Periodicity in the Terrestrial Impact Cratering Record
Rampino & Caldeira (2015) carry out a circular spectral analysis (CSA) of the terrestrial impact cratering record over the past 260 million years (Ma), and suggest a ~26 Ma periodicity […]
Posted inImpact events, Press Release
How Darkness and Cold Killed the Dinosaurs
66 million years ago, the sudden extinction of the dinosaurs started the ascent of the mammals, ultimately resulting in humankind’s reign on Earth. Climate scientists now reconstructed how tiny droplets […]
Posted inImpact events, Press Release
Asteroid Impacts Could Create Habitats For Life
Scientists studying the Chicxulub crater have shown how large asteroid impacts deform rocks in a way that may produce habitats for early life. Around 65 million years ago a massive […]