A new international study led by Western University shows that Mars’ first ‘real chance’ at developing life started very early, 4.48 billion years ago, when giant, life-inhibiting meteorites stopped striking the red planet. These findings, published online today in...
Earth Sciences
New Western study investigates potential risk of Taurid meteor swarm
A new study from Western University posits proof to the possibility that an oncoming swarm of meteors – likened to the Loch Ness Monster and Bigfoot by some extraterrestrial experts – may indeed pose an existential risk for Earth and its inhabitants. (That's us.) When...
Giant beavers didn’t eat wood and that’s likely why they didn’t survive the last Ice Age
North American beavers, which weigh between 25 to 75 pounds as adults, are the largest rodents living in Canada. That’s today. Go back 10,000 years to the last Ice Age and giant beavers – roughly three times larger than the modern North American beaver – walked the...
NASA shortlists Western co-investigated project for future launch to Saturn’s largest moon
NASA has shortlisted a revolutionary strategy, co-investigated by a Western University planetary scientist, for a future launch mission that could see a drone-like quadcopter buzz above the surface of Saturn's largest moon. The Dragonfly project would take advantage...
Rate of earthquakes depends on volume of fluids in hydraulic fracturing operations – but the magnitude of the largest possible events does not
New findings published by the high impact journal Science show that the rate in which earthquakes are triggered or induced by fracking depends on the volume of the hydraulic fracturing operations. But the magnitude of the triggered events is not capped - contrary to a...
Asteroid impacts could create habitats for life, suggests Chicxulub crater study
Scientists studying the Chicxulub crater have shown how large asteroid impacts deform rocks in a way that may produce habitats for early life. Around 65 million years ago a massive asteroid crashed into the Gulf of Mexico causing an impact so huge that the blast and...