Results tagged “comet” from 60 Second Science

According to the Meteoritical Society, more than 30,000 meteorities have been identified. (Meteorites are the interstellar rocks that make it through our atmosphere and land on Earth.) Most of them come from the rocky debris (like asteroids and comets) floating through space, but a few dozen are believed to have originated on Mars or the moon.

Or Mercury? (What, can anomalous meteorites only come from places the begin with the letter “M”?)

In a new paper submitted to the journal Meteoritics and Planetary Science, two Canadian astronomers crunch the numbers and find that we should expect Mercury-borne meteorites to strike the Earth at roughly half the rate of those from Mars. In other words, there might already be a few pieces of Mercury here on Earth.

Continue reading 'Mercurial Meteorites' >

Today's 60 Second Science Podcast is brought to you by Houghton Mifflin, who are going to be very busy if they have to rewrite their astronomy textbooks:

Comet Dust Seems More Asteroidy

Full transcript after the jump...

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And you thought you were having a crap Friday: 13,000 years ago, a comet may have collided with earth in the Great Lakes region, creating a 1,000-year-long cold spell that wiped out the Clovis culture of humans in North America.

For years, the disappearance of North America's Clovis culture was attributed either to rapid climate change or a sudden uptick in Clovis hunting practices that wiped out the 35 genera of animals they subsisted on. But similar climate changes of the time hadn't resulted in mass extinctions, and the ethnographic record doesn't support such a rapid change in hunting habits among Clovis humans.

Instead, Douglas Kennett and 25 other researchers from the University of Oregon think that a major comet collision triggered the change. The new hypothesis is based on a thin black layer of soil retrieved at over 50 North American sites. This black soil possesses magnetic grains of iridium, thought to have extraterrestrial origins, along with metallic and carbon spherules, as well as melted charcoal, which remained after catastrophic, continent-wide fires swept the land in the comet's wake.

Continue reading 'Comet may have wiped out first Americans in what scientist describes as a 'bad day;' Related: Understatement Award for 2008 goes to scientist' >

Whatever your excuse for hiding out before next weekend's family chaos, I have plans for you.

The Tempel-Tuttle comet's dust is putting on a spectacular spectacle this weekend. Meteor experts say the result, the Leonid Meteor Shower, will peak on Saturday night at 11 p.m. EST and 8 p.m. PST.

The shower is something worth bundling up and heading outside for. If you miss it on Saturday, you'll have to wait til 2040. The comet swings around once every 33 years.

Continue reading 'No plans this weekend? Watch a meteor shower' >

If you see the sun burning a brighter twinge of red later today, it's because he's no longer the king of the hill, the cock of the rock. For now, good 'ol Sol Invictus has to settle for second place: Comet Holmes is the biggest thing in our solar system.

Continue reading 'What's the largest object in the solar system? Comet Holmes, holmes!' >

Today's 60 Second Science podcast is brought to you by elementary, my dear Watson:

Sheer luck Holmes a bright comet

Full transcript after the jump...

Continue reading 'Sheer luck Holmes a bright comet [podcast]' >