extinction events
Volcanoes are the worst. They’ve caused extinctions on Earth, and probably killed Venus
Is there anything good about volcanoes? They can be violent, dangerous, and unpredictable. For modern humans, volcanoes are mostly an…
Dust in the Chixalub Crater Makes the Compelling Case That an Asteroid Wiped out the Dinosaurs 65 Million Years ago
For decades scientists have believed that an asteroid impact event ended the era of the dinosaurs 66 million years ago.…
Scientists Think They Know What Caused the Deadliest Mass Extinction in the History of the Earth
Humanity can have a love/hate relationship with itself, but there's no denying that we're the pinnacle of evolution on Earth…
Beyond “Fermi’s Paradox” IX: What is the Brief Window Hypothesis?
In this latest installment in our Fermi series, we take a look at the possibility that advanced civilizations only have…
During Mass Extinction Events, Volcanoes Were Releasing About the Same Amount of CO2 as We Are Today
200 million years ago, a mass extinction event wiped out about 76% of all species on Earth—both terrestrial and marine.…
Sorry Hollywood, it’s Going to Take a Lot More to Destroy an Asteroid
A new study from John Hopkins University has shown that blowing up asteroids might be harder than we thought.
A Rapid Rise in Temperature Led to the Worst Extinction in our Planet’s History
Everyone knows about the extinction of the dinosaurs. A cataclysmic asteroid strike about 66 million years ago (mya) caused the…
New Estimate Puts the Supernova Killzone Within 50 Light-Years of Earth
A new paper on supernovae and the effects on Earth increases the so-called "Supernova Kill-Zone" to 50 light years.
It Looks Like an Asteroid Strike Can’t Cause a Worldwide, Dinosaur-Killing Firestorm
For decades, scientists have debated the cause of the mass extinction that wiped out the dinosaurs and other life 65…
Are Gamma Ray Bursts Dangerous?
Gamma ray bursts are the most energetic explosions in the Universe, outshining the rest of their entire galaxy for a…