Oct 30 - Did an Asteroid Collision Cause Abrupt Earth Cooling?

October 30 Did an Asteroid Collision Cause Abrupt Earth Cooling? by:

Artist’s concept of an impending collision from space. Image via Vadim Sadovski/Shutterstock.com.

Did an asteroid collision cause abrupt Earth cooling? One of the most popular posts at EarthSky this week ... What kicked off a rapid cooling on Earth 12,800 years ago? Over a couple of years, average temperatures dropped as much as 14 degrees Fahrenheit (8 degrees C). Some geologists believe a fragmented comet or asteroid collided with Earth and caused this change. Read more from a scientist whose fieldwork at a South Carolina lake adds to the growing pile of evidence. How to find a wormhole … if they exist Do you love strange physics? This team of physicists proposes that perturbations in the orbits of stars near supermassive black holes could be used to detect wormholes … if they exist. Read more. Halloween is a cross-quarter day The 4 cross-quarter days fall between equinoxes and solstices. Halloween is the spookiest one - derived from a sacred festival of ancient Celts and Druids - coming as days grow short and nights long in the Northern Hemisphere. Read more. What we're reading    From the journal Nature … New elevation data triple estimates of global vulnerability to sea-level rise and coastal flooding Most estimates of global mean sea-level rise this century fall below 2 meters (about 6 feet). This new study suggests otherwise. It indicates that rising seas could affect 3 times more people by 2050 than previously thought and threaten some of the world’s great coastal cities. Check out the shocking visuals at the NY Times, or the superb explanation at the Washington Post. To hear directly from the scientists, though, read the Nature study.

EarthSky lunar calendars are back in stock We're guaranteed to sell out, get one while you can! Your support means the world to us and allows us to keep going. Purchase here.

Tonight and tomorrow ...Moon goes by Jupiter Watch for 2 brilliant luminaries - the crescent moon and the dazzling planet Jupiter - to pop out near one another as dusk deepens into nightfall. Given clear skies, you'll have no trouble seeing either world, because they are so bright! The moon is the 2nd-brightest sky object (after the sun). Jupiter is 4th-brightest (after Venus). Read more.

Mercury, Venus, moon over Thailand View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Asger Mollerup caught this photo last night and wrote: "Mercury (left), Venus (center) and the one-day moon setting over the Phu Lan Chang Mountain in the Khao Wong Valley, northeast Thailand." Thank you, Asger! See more photos of this week's young moon, or post your own, at EarthSky Community Photos. Submit your photo to EarthSky here! Did a friend forward EarthSkyNews to you? Click here to get your own subscription!

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