08.11.09:Does Cometary Mass Extinction Need to be Rewritten?

The disconnection event of comet 73P Schwassmann-Wachmann-3 as seen from the Hubble Space Telescope. (Credit: NASA/ESA/H. Weaver STScl.)

Comets are cause all mass extinctions in Earth’s history, right? Maybe not, if new research is correct. Simulations run by the scientists at the University of Washington now suggest that the giant planets of Jupiter and Saturn [...]

04.11.09:Did Ancient Comets give Earth its Seas?

Comets continue to be at the center of controversy concerning the early Earth and life. If you’ve been following our recent reports as of late, you know that opinions run the gamut, from ancient cometary impacts being relatively rare, to comets being crucial to life as we known it. Now, researchers at the Niels Bohr [...]

27.10.09: Exploring Shiva Crater.

Move over, Chicxulub; we may have a new contender in the realm of cosmic extinction events. Recently, paleontologist Sankar Chatterjee of Texas Tech University has dubbed a ring shaped subsurface structure off of the western coast of India Shiva crater. If Chaterjee is correct, it would be one of the largest impact basins on Earth [...]