The asteroid that slammed into the ocean off Mexico 66 million years ago and killed off the dinosaurs probably rang the Earth like a bell, triggering volcanic eruptions around the […]
Impact events
Posted inAstrobiology (general), Impact events, Press Release
Does Dark Matter Cause Mass Extinctions and Geologic Upheavals?
Research by New York University Biology Professor Michael Rampino concludes that Earth’s infrequent but predictable path around and through our Galaxy’s disc may have a direct and significant effect on […]
Posted inImpact events, Press Release
Plants Survive Better Through Mass Extinctions Than Animals
At least 5 mass extinction events have profoundly changed the history of life on Earth. But a new study led by researchers at the University of Gothenburg shows that plants […]
Posted inImpact events
Study Casts Doubt on Mammoth-killing Impact Event
Rock soil droplets formed by heating most likely came from Stone Age house fires and not from a disastrous cosmic impact 12,900 years ago, according to new research from the […]
Posted inImpact events
Asteroid that wiped out dinosaurs may have nearly knocked off mammals, too
The extinction of the dinosaurs 66 million years ago is thought to have paved the way for mammals to dominate, but a new study shows that many mammals died off […]
Posted inHabitable Zones, Impact events, Press Release
Small Impacts Likely Erased Much of Earth's Primordial Atmosphere
Today’s atmosphere likely bears little trace of its primordial self: Geochemical evidence suggests that Earth’s atmosphere may have been completely obliterated at least twice since its formation more than 4 […]
Posted inImpact events
Exploring the Role of the Sun's Motion in Terrestrial Comet Impacts
The cratering record on the Earth and Moon shows that our planet has been exposed to high velocity impacts for much or all of its existence. Some of these craters […]
Posted inImpact events, Missions & Hardware, Origin & Evolution of Life
Meteorite Impact Craters May Have Hosted Early Life on Earth
A new study from Western University explores the possibility that Earth’s earliest life forms may have been cultivated by a meteorite impact event. The research team from Western’s Faculty of […]
Posted inGenomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Impact events, Origin & Evolution of Life
Producing Prebiotic Chemistry by Impacting Ice
Astrobiologists have provided new information about how comets and asteroids could have delivered prebiotic chemical compounds to the early Earth. The team studied how shock pressures can lead to the […]
Posted inImpact events
Assessments of the Energy, Mass and Size of the Chicxulub Impactor
In 1980, Alvarez and colleagues proposed that, in the transition from the Cretaceous to Paleogene, a large impactor collided with Earth being the cause of the mass extinction occurred at […]