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News tagged with years

Not by asteroid alone: Rethinking the Cretaceous mass extinction

(PhysOrg.com) -- At the end of the Cretaceous period some 65 million years ago, an asteroid slammed into Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, causing severe but selective extinction. While that is widely accepted, ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Jan 19, 2012 | popularity 3.9 / 5 (14) | comments 25 | with audio podcast feature

Newfound exoplanet may turn to dust

Researchers at MIT, NASA and elsewhere have detected a possible planet, some 1,500 light years away, that appears to be evaporating under the blistering heat of its parent star. The scientists infer that a ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created May 18, 2012 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (10) | comments 7 | with audio podcast

Dinosaurs had fleas too -- giant ones, fossils show

In the Jurassic era, even the flea was a beast, compared to its minuscule modern descendants. These pesky bloodsuckers were nearly an inch long.

Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils

created Feb 29, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (11) | comments 8

Gaseous ring around young star raises questions

(PhysOrg.com) -- Astronomers have detected a mysterious ring of carbon monoxide gas around the young star V1052 Cen, which is about 700 light years away in the southern constellation Centaurus. The ring is ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Jan 19, 2012 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (12) | comments 33 | with audio podcast

Time for a change? Scholars say calendar needs serious overhaul

Researchers at The Johns Hopkins University have discovered a way to make time stand still -- at least when it comes to the yearly calendar.

Other Sciences / Mathematics

created Dec 27, 2011 | popularity 3.6 / 5 (48) | comments 142 | with audio podcast

Over 65 million years North American mammal evolution has tracked with climate change

Climate changes profoundly influenced the rise and fall of six distinct, successive waves of mammal species diversity in North America over the last 65 million years, shows a novel statistical analysis led ...

Biology / Evolution

created Dec 26, 2011 | popularity 4 / 5 (17) | comments 16 | with audio podcast

Astronomers discover biggest black holes ever (Update)

University of California, Berkeley, astronomers have discovered the largest black holes to date two monsters with masses equivalent to 10 billion suns that are threatening to consume anything, even light, ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Dec 05, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (24) | comments 22 | with audio podcast

Massive volcanoes, meteorite impacts delivered one-two death punch to dinosaurs: study

(PhysOrg.com) -- A cosmic one-two punch of colossal volcanic eruptions and meteorite strikes likely caused the mass-extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous period that is famous for killing the dinosaurs ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Nov 17, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (10) | comments 11 | with audio podcast

Origin of dinosaur-killing asteroid remains a mystery

(PhysOrg.com) -- Observations from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission indicate the family of asteroids some believed was responsible for the demise of the dinosaurs is not likely the ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Sep 20, 2011 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (9) | comments 23 | with audio podcast

Primitive birds shared dinosaurs' fate

A new study puts an end to the longstanding debate about how archaic birds went extinct, suggesting they were virtually wiped out by the same meteorite impact that put an end to dinosaurs 65 million years ...

Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils

created Sep 19, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Chandra finds nearest pair of supermassive black holes

(PhysOrg.com) -- Astronomers have used NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory to discover the first pair of supermassive black holes in a spiral galaxy similar to the Milky Way. At a distance of 160 million light ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Aug 31, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (7) | comments 4 | with audio podcast

Stellar eclipse gives glimpse of exoplanet

A group of astronomers led by an MIT professor has spotted an exoplanetary eclipse of a star only 40 light years away — right around the corner, astronomically speaking — revealing a "super-Earth."

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Jul 19, 2011 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (11) | comments 5 | with audio podcast

Herschel Space Observatory discovers source of cosmic dust in a stellar explosion

(PhysOrg.com) -- ESA's Herschel Space Observatory is helping unravel the mystery of where cosmic dust comes from. Thanks to the resolution and sensitivity of Herschel, astronomers have been able to detect ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Jul 07, 2011 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (11) | comments 6 | with audio podcast

Astronomers discover that galaxies are either asleep or awake

(PhysOrg.com) -- Astronomers have probed into the distant universe and discovered that galaxies display one of two distinct behaviors: they are either awake or asleep, actively forming stars or are not forming ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Jun 21, 2011 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (12) | comments 18 | with audio podcast

New candidate for most distant object in universe

(PhysOrg.com) -- A gamma-ray burst detected by NASA's Swift satellite in April 2009 has been newly unveiled as a candidate for the most distant object in the universe. At an estimated distance of 13.14 billion ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created May 25, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (8) | comments 8 | with audio podcast