February 2017
Growing space agency dilemma
..., London, Mexico City or Sydney could be wiped out, or much worse. We might within the next century face a mass-extinction event like the K-T catastrophe that killed off the dinosaurs and up to 75 per cent of all species on Earth...
April 2026
An alternative model for pulsars and spiral galaxies
... 3. (Figure 3) Some authors have suggested that a periodicity of about 26 million years can be discerned in the sequence of mass extinctions. Discussion The first question that needs to be addressed with this general model is whether the idea of two...
July 2019
Settling the final frontier
... a single-planet species will not survive.” Griffin noted that entire species have been wiped out in mass extinctions on average every 30 million years. “If we humans want to survive for hundreds of thousands or millions of years, we must ultimately...
January 2017
Elon Musk and Mars - looking for a snowball effect
... questions of planetary protection, fearing speculative worst-case scenarios in which terrestrial micro-organisms caused a mass extinction of hypothetical Martian ones, or Martian microbes proved fatal to human life. These responses explored a number...
12 July 2016
Did two ancient supernovas cause cell mutation and climate change on Earth?
... you might speed up evolution,” explained Merlot. It is perhaps coincidental, but around 2.59 million years ago a minor mass extinction occurred. This may be connected to a cooling in Earths climate, as the increased abundance of cosmic rays ionised...
September 2016
Life in the extremes: confessions of an astrobiologist
... For instance, giant volcanic eruptions and asteroid impacts are the most likely explanations for many mass extinctions that occurred during Earth’s history. On the other hand, hydrothermal vents, certain sedimentary formations and other...
