Largest crater in the great Sahara discovered by Boston University scientists
Researchers from Boston University have discovered the remnants of the largest crater of the Great Sahara of North Africa, which may have been formed by a meteorite impact tens of millions of years ago. view more (2006-03-06)
Mysterious carbon excess found in infant solar system
Astronomers detected unusually high quantities of carbon, the basis of all terrestrial life, in an infant solar system around nearby star Beta Pictoris, 63 light-years away. view more (2006-06-08)
Cosmic bogs @ the London Catastrophes conference
You may think that peat bogs are among the least interesting places on Earth and you could be right. But according to speakers at Brunel University`s `Environmental Catastrophes` conference, that doesn`t stop them being excellent recorders of catastrophic environmental events like volcanic eruptions and cosmic influx. According to Dr Lars... view more... (2002-08-17)
Meteorites delivered the 'seeds' of Earth's left-hand life
Flash back three or four billion years - Earth is a hot, dry and lifeless place. All is still. Without warning, a meteor slams into the desert plains at over ten thousand miles per hour. With it, this violent collision may have planted the chemical seeds of life on Earth. view more (2008-04-07)
Rebecca boldly goes from star-gazing to space research
A Kingston University graduate is about to set off on an academic mission to discover if there is life on other planets. Earth and planetary science specialist Rebecca Blackhurst hopes to land a research job at America's National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) at the end of her trek through the academic world. First she intends to... view more... (2003-06-27)
UK astronomers observe asteroid before it crashes into Earth
UK astronomers, using the Science and Technology Facilities Council's (STFC) William Herschel Telescope on La Palma, observed a rare asteroid as it was hurtling towards our planet and have captured the only spectrum of it before it exploded in our atmosphere. view more (2009-03-27)
News from Earth's magnetic field
It is widely known that the geomagnetic field shields our planet against highly energetic cosmic particles. The importance of the magnetic field for answering geological, tectonic or even archaeological questions is less known. view more (2007-12-21)
Earliest meteorites provide new piece in planetary formation puzzle
Researchers trying to understand how the planets formed have uncovered a new clue by analysing meteorites that are older than the earth. view more (2005-09-20)
Earliest Stage of Planet Formation Dated
UC Davis researchers have dated the earliest step in the formation of the solar system -- when microscopic interstellar dust coalesced into mountain-sized chunks of rock -- to 4,568 million years ago, within a range of about 2,080,000 years. view more (2007-12-20)
Apollo 11 moon rocks still crucial 40 years later, say WUSTL researchers
A lunar geochemist at Washington University in St. Louis says that there are still many answers to be gleaned from the moon rocks collected by the Apollo 11 astronauts on their historic moonwalk 40 years ago July 20. view more (2009-07-20)
Was male domination deadly for dinosaurs?
Dinosaurs suddenly died out because they gave birth to too many males as a result of climate change. This is the theory put forward by David Miller of medicine and Jonathen Summers of mechanical engineering at the University of Leeds. They believe that dinosaur populations died out because the sex of their offspring was determined by temperature.... view more... (2004-05-10)
Extraterrestrial platinum was 'stirred' into the Earth
Report author CSIRO Minerals Down Under Flagship researcher Dr Stephen Barnes said the study group collected a large body of data on the platinum content of lava flows called komatiites, which host some of the world's major nickel deposits. view more (2009-07-31)
Can Biosensors Find Life On Mars?
Is there life on Mars? Thanks to a £60k grant from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), a team from Cranfield University and the University of Leicester will try and find the answer. The team, led by Dr David Cullen from Cranfield's Biotechnology Centre and Dr Mark Sims at the Space Research Centre at the... view more... (2001-11-27)
Megatsunamis @ the London `Catastrophes` conference
The modern world appears secure in its knowledge of hazards. However tsunamis today are smaller and less frequent than they were in prehistory. view more (2002-08-17)
Dealing with threatening space rocks
Every now and then a space rock hits the world's media - sometimes almost literally. Threatening asteroids that zoom past the Earth, fireballs in the sky seen by hundreds of people and mysterious craters which may have been caused by impacting meteorites; all make ESA's activities in this field, including the Don Quijote study, look increasingly... view more... (2007-09-21)
Meteor no longer prime suspect in great extinction
The greatest mass extinction in Earth's history also may have been one of the slowest, according to a study that casts further doubt on the extinction-by-meteor theory. view more (2007-10-25)
Meteorites a rich source for primordial soup
The organic soup that spawned life on Earth may have gotten generous helpings from outer space, according to a new study. Scientists at the Carnegie Institution have discovered concentrations of amino acids in two meteorites that are more than ten times higher than levels previously measured in other similar meteorites. view more (2008-03-14)
At that star, turn left!
Our bodies contain proteins that are made of smaller molecules that can be either left- or right-handed, depending upon their structure. Regardless of which hand we use to write, however, all human beings are `left-handed` at the molecular level. Life on Earth uses the left-handed variety and no one knows how this preference crept into living... view more... (2002-10-17)
Volcanoes, asteroids and mass extinctions
Neither massive volcanic eruptions nor extraterrestrial impacts are sufficiently powerful on their own to cause mass extinctions of life on Earth, research by University of Leicester geologists suggests. Instead, both events coincidentally occurring together may be required to cause the worst mass extinctions. In the last 300 million years, life... view more... (2004-05-17)
Calculations favor reducing atmopshere for early Earth
Using primitive meteorites called chondrites as their models, earth and planetary scientists at Washington University in St. Louis have performed outgassing calculations and shown that the early Earth's atmosphere was a reducing one, chock full of methane, ammonia, hydrogen and water vapor. view more (2005-09-08)
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