Tag Archives: impact

Chicxulub Impactor Found?

Posted on April 16, 2022 by Brian

In class, we discussed the Chicxulub impact, which is highly likely to have triggered the extinction event that killed the dinosaurs. Despite the large size of the impactor, the catastrophic impact and 65 million years of geological processes have hidden the exact nature of the impactor from scientists. While iridium deposits in sedimentary rock layersContinue reading “Chicxulub Impactor Found?” Continue reading →

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Theia

Posted on May 1, 2021 by dayanel123

For my last blog post I have decided to blog about something close to home. The Theia impact is also called the Big Splash, and is a hypothesis as to how we got our moon. The theory is that a mars-sized planetesimal impacted our proto-earth in its early life. This massive impact essentially shredded TheiaContinue reading “Theia” Continue reading →

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Asteroid Defense Systems

Posted on April 2, 2019 by Jonathan Roberts

As it currently stands, Earth has no recourse if a large asteroid decides to strike. Something on the scale of the Cretaceous-Paleogene event would devastate humanity. So, how do we protect ourselves against such an impact? Enter NASA and the “National Near-Earth Object Preparedness and Strategy Plan.” According to them, five steps need to be … Continue reading Asteroid Defense Systems → Continue reading →

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Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9

Posted on April 2, 2017 by Nick Belsten

In 1994, one year after its discovery, the fragmented remains of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 crashed into Jupiter’s upper atmosphere in a sequence of 23 large impacts, each releasing the energy equivalent of 25,000 megatons of TNT, more than one million times as much energy as released by the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Orbital analysis … Continue reading Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 → Continue reading →

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Where did all the dinosaurs go?

Posted on April 7, 2016 by sarabkeller

I think one of the more fascinating topics in Earth’s past is the mystery of the dinosaurs. They were here 65 million years ago (for a shockingly long time—if you remember, they were here for almost a week in the “calendar” of the universe!) and then suddenly disappeared. So, what happened to them? It is […] Continue reading →

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The K-T Extinction: Asteroids and Atmospheres

Posted on March 15, 2015 by dillonkoval

Let’s talk about the dinosaurs. Everyone has heard the story: Dinosaurs roamed the Earth ages ago until an asteroid hit and caused all of them to go extinct. There was a huge amount of dust thrown up into the atmosphere which blocked out the Sun and caused plants to die. This set off a chain […] Continue reading →

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The K-Pg Event, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Exterminate the Dinosaurs

Posted on April 10, 2013 by rtjobe

Also known as the K-T Event, its name is derived from the German words for Cretaceous and Paleogene. It has been a long-held belief by scientists that it was an impact by a large comet or asteroid that killed off the dinosaurs. Fossil records indicate that 66 million years ago, almost 75% of life on […] Continue reading →

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The whole asteroid thing!

Posted on February 16, 2013 by drgrundstrom

There have been some pretty amazing things going on with asteroids the past couple of days, namely the passing of Asteroid 2012 DA14 and the Russian Meteor Event.   But they were completely unrelated!  Here is an excellent infographic for you (click to make bigger): We weren’t going to be seeing that little 50-foot asteroid […] Continue reading →

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