earth, giant impact hypothesis, great oxidation event, moon, permian extinction, permian mass extinction, snowball earth, theia

4 Worst Catastrophes Earth Has Survived

We all at some time or another think about life-changing catastrophes, but have you given much thought to Earth’s life-changing events? Most people have never heard of these catastrophes. 4 catastrophes that have happened to Earth 1. The Giant Impact Scientists think the Moon formed shortly after Earth around 4.5 billion years ago. A new ...

Troy Oakes

Artist's rendering of Earth and moon seen from space with a massive fireball aproaching.

What Is Hidden on the Dark Side of the Moon?

Today we’re going to talk about the dark side of the Moon. Dark side of the Moon I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but when you look up at the full Moon, the pattern on the Moon is always the same, no matter if it’s spring, summer, autumn, or winter. That’s because the Moon orbits Earth ...

Believe It Or Not

The moon.

Late Heavy Bombardment of the Moon Revealed

The Moon’s surface is covered by numerous craters that date back to the impacts of asteroids. Age determinations on lunar rocks formed during these impacts show a surprising clustering at ages of about 3.9 billion years before present, or about 500 million years after the Moon was formed. These observations have led to the theory ...

Troy Oakes

Space Station flying by the Moon.

Mid-Autumn Festival: Ancient Poetry and Music With the Moon at Heart

The Mid-Autumn Festival (also known as the Moon Festival) is upon us. The moon in traditional Chinese culture is seen as a symbol of family reunion. On the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, families reunite and celebrate by sitting outside, under the full moon, with a table filled with tea, fruit, incense, mooncakes, and candles as ...

Jessica Kneipp

Full Moon with stars in background.

Small Impacts Churn Surface of Jupiter’s Moon Europa

Small impact craters on Jupiter’s moon Europa could eventually offer scientists a glimpse of possible habitability below the body’s frozen surface, a new paper on which Planetary Science Institute Senior Scientist Rebecca Ghent is an author.  Europa has a global ocean covered by an icy surface that is covered with small impacts from the past ...

Troy Oakes

Mars' moon Europa.

Researchers Model Source of Eruption on Jupiter’s Moon Europa

On Jupiter’s icy moon Europa, powerful eruptions may spew into space, raising questions among hopeful astrobiologists on Earth: What would blast out from miles-high plumes? Could they contain signs of extraterrestrial life? And where in Europa would they originate? A new explanation now points to a source closer to the frozen surface than might be ...

Troy Oakes

Jupiter's moon Europa.

Mars Plays Shepherd to Our Moon’s Long-Lost Twin

An international team of planetary scientists, led by astronomers at AOP, have found an asteroid trailing behind Mars with a composition very similar to the Moon’s. The asteroid could be an ancient piece of debris, dating back to the gigantic impacts that formed the Moon and the other rocky planets in our solar system like ...

Troy Oakes

The Moon and Mars at night over a field.

Looking for Pieces of Venus? Try the Moon

A growing body of research suggests the planet Venus may have had an Earth-like environment billions of years ago, with water and a thin atmosphere. Yet testing such theories is difficult without geological samples to examine. The solution, according to Yale astronomers Samuel Cabot and Gregory Laughlin, may be closer than anyone realized. Cabot and ...

Troy Oakes

A comet striking Venus.

Has Earth’s Oxygen Rusted the Moon for Billions of Years?

To the surprise of many planetary scientists, the oxidized iron mineral hematite has been discovered at high latitudes on the Moon. That’s according to a study published in Science Advances led by Shuai Li, an assistant researcher at the Hawai‘i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology (HIGP) in the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST). Iron ...

Troy Oakes

A crescent Moon.