Earth's Place in the Universe

  1. Space

    Black holes are on collision course

    But be patient. The distant galactic smashup is still some million years away.

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  2. Fossils

    Dino double whammy

    Most scientists think an asteroid helped kill off the dinosaurs. But new calculations suggest that asteroid might have gotten some help from a long series of volcanic eruptions in what is now India.

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  3. Physics

    Light robs galaxy of star-making gas

    Stars form from clouds of hydrogen and other gases. Astronomers have found the light from newborn stars can drive off that gas. That action can starve a galaxy of the ingredients needed to make more stars.

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  4. Fossils

    Tar pit clues provide ice age news

    New analyses of insects and mammals trapped in the La Brea Tar Pits point to climate surprises during the last ice age.

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  5. Earth

    When life exploded

    Life exploded in diversity during the Cambrian Period. Experts are exploring what could account for this sudden change 540 million years ago.

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  6. Planets

    Picture This: Falling to a comet

    After a more than decade-long ride, a robotic lander has left its spacecraft and floated down onto the surface of a comet. From there it should begin scouting for hints at how our solar system formed.

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  7. Earth

    How people have been shaping the Earth

    We are the dominant force of change on Earth. Some experts propose naming our current time period the ‘Anthropocene’ to reflect our impact.

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  8. Earth

    Explainer: Understanding ice ages

    Earth slowly wobbles, tilts and stretches (or contracts) as it orbits the sun. These changes may be fairly small and subtle. Still, their cumulative impacts can be huge — sometimes triggering the slow onset of an ice age or an abrupt thaw.

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  9. Earth

    Explainer: The volcano basics

    Here’s an overview of what they are, where they form and the many ways they pose dangers.

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  10. Planets

    Explainer: What are asteroids?

    Leftovers from the creation of the solar system, asteroids are space rocks that orbit the sun. Let’s hope the big ones never become meteorites.

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  11. Earth

    Meteorites likely wiped out Earth’s earliest life

    Enormous meteorites appear to have slammed into Earth several times early in its history. Each mega-smashup would have boiled off oceans and obliterated any bit of life.

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  12. Space

    Monster collision in space

    The smashup of four clusters of galaxies has sent a super-hot jet of charged particles spewing 2.5 million light-years into space!

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