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comet

Did a 13,000 Year Old Comet Strike Change Human History?

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Could a devastating comet impact in Earth’s distant past have forever changed human civilization? Scientists think that a cluster of comet shards may have smashed into Earth’s surface 13,000 years ago, in the most catastrophic impact since the Chicxulub event killed off Earth’s large dinosaurs about 66 million years ago. In a new study, a team led by Martin Sweatman, a scientist at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, investigated the impact and how it could have shaped the origins of human societies on Earth. While the first Homo sapiens emerged between 200,000 and 300,000 years ago, much farther in … Read more

SPACE: Astronomers Detect a Swarm of Tiny Objects Orbiting an Alien Sun

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comets

There are tiny comets orbiting foreign suns. And human beings can detect them. Six times, about 800 years ago, dark things passed between the bright-yellow dwarf star KIC 3542116 and Earth. They were small in cosmic terms, about 330 billion tons (300 billion metric tons). That’s about the size of Halley’s Comet, or just one-245 millionth the mass of Earth’s moon. But they were big enough. They blocked a fraction of a fraction of the light that was streaming outward from that star. Eight hundred years later, the sensitive lens of the Kepler Space Telescope — a nearly meterwide piece … Read more

SPACE: Cosmic Triple Treat Tomorrow Night

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Comet Turn your eyes to the sky this Friday night and prepare for a series of spectacular celestial sights. A penumbral lunar eclipse, a full moon and a comet will all be visible from across North America ― weather permitting. The full “Snow Moon,” so-called because February is usually the snowiest month in the U.S., is set to appear slightly darker than usual as it crosses through a peripheral part of the Earth’s shadow. By Lee Moran – Full Story at The Huffington Post