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Dr. Gulick also noted that the study highlights the dangers posed by asteroids over time, including the risks posed to our planet-bound civilization. The Chicxulub effect and the fate of dinosaurs are often cited as the ultimate argument for both investing in planetary defense research and expanding our species beyond Earth. (Other worlds, including Mars, is not exempt from large-scale asteroid impacts.)
But Chicxulub also sheds light on some of the most evocative questions about the emergence of life. Dr. Kring has long been interested in this subject and numerous studies on microbial ecosystems what emerged in the fallout of the apocalyptic event.
“There is an argument that stipulates that this type of bombardment is involved not only in disrupting the evolution of life, but also in the origin of life on our planet,” he said. “Understanding these processes is important, and our best measures of some of these outcomes on Earth will come from the youngest of these impact factors, such as Chicxulub, because the evidence is more robust.”
Dr. Gulick’s lead mission continues to clarify the role of influence as both a destroyer and a crucible for life. As researchers dig deeper into the buried Apocalypse event, found dusty tracks impact device, sandy backwash from tsunami had created and fossilized remains subsequent organisms.
Perhaps most surprisingly, a study published this summer described the modern-day microbial descendants of these early crater adopters, still living in the shadow of the catastrophe colonized by their ancestors.
Dr. “It’s incredible to me that you can have an impact and create an ecosystem, 66 million years later, you still have living life in that location because of this previous state,” Gulick said. “On a larger scale, perhaps you can produce habitats that have impacts very early in Earth’s history and enable ecosystems to survive later. It reflects one of the ways you can live your life.”
In this sense, the Chicxulub collider has truly galactic implications as a time capsule of both biological catastrophe and the birth of new life. Other life-bearing worlds in the Milky Way, with their own tales of destruction and healing, may be similarly shaped by asteroid impacts.
Dr. “This is a problem that goes far beyond the extinction of the dinosaurs,” Kring said.
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