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Debate about the impact of the $787 billion stimulus continued this week. “Thanks largely to the Recovery Act,” Larry Summers argued, “we have walked a substantial distance back from the economic abyss and are on the path toward economic recovery.” Yet the latest data from the Department of Commerce continue to show that only an insubstantial part of this distance was due to the stimulus. The table shows the latest Department of Commerce estimates of the contributions of consumption, investment, net exports, and government spending to the improvement in GDP growth from the first to second quarter. Growth improved by...

William K. Hartmann painted this conception of an asteroid impact on Mars. Similar explosions formed many of craters that international space probes have observed on the red planet. Hartmann, co-founder of the Tucson-based Planetary Science Institute, is an internationally recognized expert on impact cratering and the evolution of planetary surfaces. Among his many contributions to the field, the Meteoritical Society is honoring his discovery of the Moon's giant Orientale impact basin, a discovery he made as a graduate student in 1962 under the direction of space sciences pioneer Gerard Kuiper. The society also is recognizing his development of a...

As you may have guessed, rising unemployment accounts for many home foreclosures. That's turning many people from homeowners to renters. Judy Heller and her husband spent 24 years in their Rochester home, raising their kids. But they're moving out soon. "It's too expensive, we can't afford to stay here and my husband had looked for a job around Rochester but most of them are minimum wage, and you can't survive on minimum wage now," Says Heller. They're moving to an apartment in the Twin Cities, where her husband's found a job. Down sizing means living in a smaller place, and...

This image shows a large impact shown on the bottom left on Jupiter's south polar region captured on July 20, 2009, by NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility in Mauna Kea, Hawaii. Credit: NASA/JPL/Infrared Telescope Facility As we reported yesterday, an amateur astronomer snapped evidence of an impact on Jupiter. Now, NASA has confirmed the black spot on the giant gas planet is in fact an impact and not just a weather-related disturbance. And Anthony Wesley has now made the biggest observation of his life. "It still feels very surreal right now," he told Universe Today. "I guess it will take...

2007 VK184Earth Impact Risk Summary Torino Scale (maximum) 1 Palermo Scale (maximum) -1.83 Palermo Scale (cumulative) -1.82 Impact Probability (cumulative) 3.4e-04 Number of Potential Impacts 4 Vimpact 19.19 km/s Vinfinity 15.63 km/s H 22.0 Diameter 0.130 km Mass 3.3e+09 kg Energy 1.5e+02 MT all above are mean values weighted by impact probability Analysis based on101 observations spanning 60.013 days(2007-Nov-12.13904 to 2008-Jan-11.15189) Orbit diagram and elements available here.

WASHINGTON, June 22, 2009 – Defense Department officials are working aggressively to reduce the impact of multiple deployments on the children of military families. “The department recognizes that these multiple, long-term deployments are really tough on families,” said Barbara Thompson, director of the Pentagon’s Office of Family Policy/Children and Youth. Deployments since fighting began in Iraq and Afghanistan have affected nearly 2 million military children, and about 234,000 of those children currently have at least one parent deployed, according to a 2007 Defense Manpower Data Center report. Surveys of active-duty and reserve-component spouses in 2008 included questions regarding military children....

Ever wish you got something really painful on camera, right at the moment of impact? Well these people managed. These have all got to hurt. More pics on site

When an asteroid was spotted heading towards our planet last October, researchers rushed to document a cosmic impact from start to finish for the first time. Roberta Kwok tells the tale.Around midnight on 6 October 2008, a white dot flitted across the screen of Richard Kowalski's computer at an observatory atop Mount Lemmon in Arizona. Kowalski had seen hundreds of such dots during three and a half years of scanning telescope images for asteroids that might hit Earth or come close. He followed the object through the night and submitted the coordinates, as usual, to the Minor Planet Center in...

It's a classic image from every youngster's science textbook: a cutaway image of Earth's interior. The brown crust is paper-thin; the warm mantle orange, the seething liquid of the outer core yellow, and at the center the core, a ball of solid, red-hot iron. Now a new theory aims to rewrite it all by proposing the seemingly impossible: Earth has not one but two inner cores. The idea stems from an ancient, cataclysmic collision that scientists believe occurred when a Mars-sized object hit Earth about 4.45 billion years ago. The young Earth was still so hot that it was mostly...

Researchers are launching a $21 million study to determine the impacts of a warming climate on Nevada and its precious water supply. The five-year project ... --snip-- Nick Lancaster, a desert geomorphologist at DRI and project investigator, said the study will try to pinpoint effects on people and ecosystems. --snip-- Plans call for monitoring stations to be established in north-central Nevada and southern Nevada. The stations would monitor aspects of climate change at different elevations and landscapes. Temperatures, wind speed, precipitation, solar radiation and soil moisture would be measured. Instruments attached to trees will measure their growth, while webcams will...

Scientific Scenario Of A Comet's Impact With Earth And The "Wormwood Star" Prophecy by Marshall Beeber An Introduction In the First Century AD, the Apostle John wrote an apocalyptic book called "Revelation" in which he described among many "end-time" events the collision of a star called Wormwood with Earth. Revelation states: Rev. 8:10-11: The third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water-- the name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters turned bitter, and many people...

INDEPENDENT RESEARCH debunks one of the Democratic Party's favorite talking points about the global consequences of the war in Iraq. Armed with government statistics showing a big increase in terrorist attacks since 2002, Democrats routinely assert that President Bush ignited a firestorm of terrorism throughout the Muslim world when he sent troops into Iraq. The claim and the statistics are used to illustrate what Democrats see as the foolishness of the president's belief that toppling Saddam Hussein's regime would reduce instability in the Middle East and eliminate a major potential source of terrorism. A survey released in May by a...

Scientists are to sail to the mid-Atlantic to examine a massive "open wound" on the Earth's surface. Dr Chris MacLeod, from Cardiff University, said the Earth's crust appeared to be missing across an area of several thousand square kilometres. The hole in the crust is midway between the Cape Verde Islands and the Caribbean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The team will survey the area, up to 5km (3 miles) under the surface, from ocean research vessel RRS James Cook. The ship is on its inaugural voyage after being named in February. Dr MacLeod said the hole in the Earth's crust...

Russian scientists in bid to solve Tunguska Event Last Updated: 1:18AM BST 02/07/2008 Russian scientists will this week attempt to solve the mystery of a giant explosion 100 years ago that turned night to day across western Europe and flattened a large swathe of Siberia. Trees lay strewn across the Siberian countryside, in 1953, 45 years after an 'unexplained explosion' near Tunguska, Russia A century after reindeer herdsmen saw a column of light that shone with the intensity of the Sun moving across the Siberian dawn sky, the Tunguska Event remains one of the modern era's most abiding scientific riddles....

With the premiere of Ben Stein’s new movie, Expelled, many people are pondering the long-term impact of Darwinism on society. We touched base with two experts on the subject. Arguing that Darwinism has had a largely positive impact on society is Michael Ruse (MR), the Lucyle T. Werkmeister Professor of Philosophy at Florida State University. Arguing that Darwinism has had a largely negative impact on society is Richard Weikart (RW), Professor of History at California State University, Stanislaus. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Set this up for the layman. What is Darwinism? Is it science? Is it a social theory? A philosophy? MR:...

'Biggest UK space impact found' By Paul Rincon Science reporter, BBC News The impact occurred about 1.2 billion years ago. Evidence of the biggest meteorite ever to hit the British Isles has been found by a team of scientists. Researchers from the universities of Oxford and Aberdeen think a large object hit north-west Scotland about 1.2 billion years ago. The space rock struck the ground near the present-day town of Ullapool, they report in Geology journal. The scientists found what they believe to be debris which was flung out when the impact crater was formed. "If there had been human...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sudden, tremendous gushes of water from underground most likely carved out unusual fan-shaped geological formations with steps like a staircase long ago on the surface of Mars, scientists said on Wednesday. The Martian surface boasts perhaps 200 large basins that have formations resembling fans. About 10 of them are terraced, with what looks like steps into the basin. Since they were first seen three years ago, scientists have debated how these formations, some of them 9 miles wide, were created. Dutch and U.S. researchers simulated on Earth on a vastly smaller scale the conditions that might have...

(Dog owners eat your heart out: doesn't work with dogs!)New study says they (cat owners) are less likely to die of heart attack or stroke Cat owners are less likely to die of a heart attack or stroke than people who, well, don't own cats, a new study suggests. The study, by researchers at the University of Minnesota, found that felineless people were 30 percent to 40 percent more likely to die of cardiovascular disease than those with cats.

Gay marriage amendment may impact presidential race Sunday, February 10, 2008 The issue on whether to ban same-sex marriages is expected draw more conservatives to the polls.STATE (Bay News 9) -- An amendment on the ballot in November could impact the presidential election. The amendment would ban same-sex marriages. It defines marriage as a legal union of only one man and one woman. Like Amendment 1 on property tax reform did earlier this month, Amendment 2 is expected to draw a high number of voters to the polls. "It will become a big issue as it relates to turnout," said...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 11, 2008 – If Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates approves a proposal to send 3,000 Marines to Afghanistan, it could have a significant impact on operations in the country, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said here today. Navy Adm. Michael G. Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, answers a question from local media during a Pentagon news briefing Jan. 11, 2008. Photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Molly A. Burgess, USN  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Navy Adm. Michael G. Mullen said during a Pentagon news conference that the proposal is...

PASADENA, Calif. - Scientists tracking an asteroid approaching Mars say that an impact with the Red Planet has become less likely. Refined estimates of the asteroid's orbit were made using new observations from a telescope at the Calar Alto Observatory in Spain, according to the Near-Earth Object Program at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The impact probability fell to 2.5 percent, the NEO office said in Jan. 8 update posted on the NEO Web site. The miss distance was holding steady at about 30,000 kilometers, or 18,600 miles. The asteroid, dubbed 2007 WD5, was discovered in late November by the NASA-funded...

Possible Mars impact highlights risk to Earth 00:01 04 January 2008 NewScientist.com news service David Shiga Asteroid 2007 WD5's orbit takes it from just outside Earth's orbit through Mars's orbit to the asteroid belt (Illustration: JPL/NASA)Tools An asteroid hurtling towards Mars has a 1 in 28 chance of walloping the Red Planet, according to the latest calculations. The rock's discovery just a couple of months before a possible impact begs the question of what would happen if it were instead headed for Earth – the only option, astronomers say, would be to evacuate any inhabited areas it might hit. The...

Additional position observations for asteroid 2007 WD5 taken on December 29 through January 2 have been used to improve the accuracy of the asteroid's orbit. As a result, the range of possible paths past Mars has narrowed by a factor of 3 and the most likely path has moved a little farther away from the planet, causing the Mars impact probability to decrease slightly to 3.6% (about one chance in 28). The new positional observations were made using the 2.4 meter telescope at New Mexico Tech's Magdalena Ridge Observatory and reported by astronomer Bill Ryan. It seems likely that as...

Moons like the Earth's - which are formed in catastrophic collisions - are extremely rare in the Universe, a study by US astronomers suggests. The Moon was created when an object as big as the planet Mars smacked into the Earth billions of years ago. The impact hurled debris into orbit, some of which eventually consolidated to form our Moon. The Astrophysical Journal reports that just 5-10% of planetary systems in the Universe have moons created this way.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 11, 2007 – Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates today expressed concern over the state of U.S.-Turkey relations, a day after Congress passed a symbolic measure that considers Turkey guilty of waging a genocide campaign against Armenians in World War I. Despite appeals from President Bush and other top U.S. officials to reject the measure, the U.S. House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee yesterday voted 27 to 21 in favor of a nonbinding resolution that characterized the mass killings of some 1.5 million Armenians, which began in 1915, as genocide. “This is a very sensitive subject for a close...

Contact: Lisa Nelson Lisa.Nelson@nau.edu 928-523-6123 Northern Arizona University Research team says extraterrestrial impact to blame for Ice Age extinctions A colorized scanning electron microscope image of a glassy carbon sphere that contains evidence of extraterrestrial impact. The sphere measures about .012 inches in width. What caused the extinction of mammoths and the decline of Stone Age people about 13,000 years ago remains hotly debated. Overhunting by Paleoindians, climate change and disease lead the list of probable causes. But an idea once considered a little out there is now hitting closer to home. A team of international researchers, including two Northern...

An object that struck the high plains of Peru on Saturday, causing a mysterious illness among local residents, was a rare kind of meteorite, scientists announced today. A team of Peruvian researchers confirmed the origins of the object, which crashed near Lake Titicaca, after taking samples to a lab in the capital city of Lima (see Peru map). Nearby residents who visited the impact crater complained of headaches and nausea, spurring speculation that the explosion was a subterranean geyser eruption or a release of noxious gas from decayed matter underground. But the illness was the result of inhaling arsenic fumes,...

FORT HOOD, Texas - Army Sgt. Lawrence Sprader set out under the searing Texas sun on a map-reading exercise, carrying a cell phone in case he got hopelessly lost or fell ill in the hills and ravines of Fort Hood. And still he didn't make it out alive. For more than an hour, a disoriented and dehydrated Sprader used his phone to repeatedly call superiors and tell them of his plight before the 24-year-old Iraq war veteran finally collapsed in the thick underbrush, where his decomposing body was discovered four days later. How could that have happened? A 1,700-page Army...

'Lunar Ark' Proposed in Case of Deadly Impact on Earth Kevin Holden Platt for National Geographic News August 14, 2007 The moon should be developed as a sanctuary for civilization in case of a cataclysmic cosmic impact, according to an international team of experts. NASA already has blueprints to create a permanent lunar outpost by the 2020s. (Read: "Moon Base Announced by NASA" [December 4, 2006].) But that plan should be expanded to include a way to preserve humanity's learning, culture, and technology if Earth is hit by a doomsday asteroid or comet, said Jim Burke of International Space University...

Cray Supercomputer at Sandia Helps Researchers Discover Origin of Mysterious Glass Found in King Tut's Tomb Released : Tuesday, July 31, 2007 7:26 AM Global supercomputer leader Cray Inc. (NASDAQ: CRAY) today announced that researchers running simulations on the Cray supercomputer at Sandia National Laboratories have re-created what could have happened 29 million years ago when an asteroid explosion turned Saharan sand into glass. The greenish natural glass, which can still be found scattered across remote stretches of the desert, was used by an artisan in ancient Egypt to carve a scarab that decorates one of the bejeweled breastplates buried...

When most bombs go off, they release a spray of deadly shards of steel. Now, imagine that those shards were themselves explosive, detonating in a massive chain reaction. It's for real: Defense contractors are harnessing the strange alchemy of reactive materials (RMs) — in which two or more inert materials are mixed to create an explosion — to develop smaller, more lethal warheads, as well as new ways to protect troops against mortar rounds and rocket-propelled grenades. RMs generally consist of powdered metals, such as aluminum or titanium, combined with an oxidizing agent. Whether that agent is another powdered metal...

GRAND MARAIS, Minn. - A forest fire has led to a chance discovery of debris from the impact of a meteorite 1.85 billion years ago, more than 450 miles away at Sudbury, Ontario. Geologists had scheduled a field trip in May along the Gunflint Trail in northeastern Minnesota, but most areas they wanted to explore were closed because of a wildfire that charred more than 118 square miles. Geologist Mark Jirsa of the Minnesota Geological Survey went up the trail to scout new locations and, in a spot he had never visited before, stumbled across debris now linked to the...

WASHINGTON, July 13, 2007 – It will take time and considerable resources to rebuild Iraq following more than 25 years of neglect under Saddam Hussein’s rule, a U.S. military official told online journalists today. However, U.S. assistance is only part of a broader effort -- from both Iraqi and other donor nations -- that will have a lasting effect on the country’s infrastructure, said Army Brig. Gen. Michael Walsh, Corps of Engineers Gulf Region Division commander. Numerous relief and developmental funds have resulted in more than 3,300 completed projects for electricity, oil and water systems throughout Iraq. As of May,...

WASHINGTON, July 13, 2007 – Ongoing anti-insurgent operations conducted in and around Baghdad and to the south of Iraq’s capital city are achieving continued success, a senior U.S. military officer said today during a teleconference with retired military analysts. Maj. Gen. Rich Lynch, commander of Multinational Division Center and U.S. Army’s 3rd Infantry Division, said he is optimistic that the surge will reduce violence in Baghdad while seriously disrupting insurgent operations in Iraq. “Eventually, I believe you’ll see (an) improved security situation inside of Baghdad” due to the surge operations, he said. “But, it’s not going to happen overnight.” Seeing...

Contact: Jim Barlow jebarlow@uoregon.edu 541-346-3481 University of Oregon Oregon researchers involved in new Clovis-age impact theory Did a comet hit the Great Lakes region and fragment human populations 12,900 years ago? Two University of Oregon researchers are on a multi-institutional 26-member team proposing a startling new theory: that an extraterrestrial impact, possibly a comet, set off a 1,000-year-long cold spell and wiped out or fragmented the prehistoric Clovis culture and a variety of animal genera across North America almost 13,000 years ago. Driving the theory is a carbon-rich layer of soil that has been found, but not definitively explained, at...

MEXICO CITY - Mexico has lost more people to migration to the United States than death since 2000, according to a government report released Thursday. Mexico's demographics agency found that an average of 577,000 people migrated to the U.S. each year between 2000-2005, compared to 495,000 deaths a year in the same period. In 2006, 559,000 migrated and there were 501,000 deaths. Mexico had 104.9 million residents as of last year, an increase of 6.4 million since 2000. Immigration to the U.S. has increased drastically since 1970, when 800,000 Mexicans lived north of the border. Today, there are about 11...

WASHINGTON, April 4, 2007 – The hard work U.S. troops are doing in Iraq is “laying the foundations of peace for generations to come,” President Bush told soldiers and family members today at Fort Irwin, Calif. “The work that you have volunteered to do will have a lasting impact on the world in which we live,” the president told the troops. By helping Iraq become a country that can sustain, defend and govern itself -- and become an ally in the war on terror -- the U.S. military will have delivered a significant blow to those who want to...

UK impact crater debate heats up By Jonathan Fildes Science and technology reporter, BBC News Seismic surveys show a trough surrounded by concentric fractures A deep scar under the North Sea thought to be the UK's only impact crater is no such thing, claims a leading geologist. Professor John Underhill, from the University of Edinburgh, says the Silverpit structure, as it is known, has a far more mundane explanation. Detailed surveys reveal nine similar vast chasms in the area, he says. This suggests it was part of a more widespread process, probably the movement of salt rocks at depth, not...

Did a giant impact create the two faces of Mars? 16:29 15 March 2007 NewScientist.com news service David Shiga, Houston Mars's northern hemisphere is lower in elevation – by about 5 kilometres – than its southern hemisphere (see image below). This coloured topographical map shows low elevations in blue and high elevations in yellow and red. The map is centred on a latitude of 55° north (Illustration: Mike Caplinger/MSSS) Mars's southern hemisphere is higher and more heavily cratered than the northern hemisphere, suggesting it is older terrain. The two low elevations (blue) in this map, which is centred on the...

Recently, two lengthy immigration studies were released that made headlines across California for their unbelievable claims made by the authors on the impact of illegal immigration in our state. These so-called immigration experts at the Public Policy Institute of California and the Immigration Policy Center came to the misguided conclusion that illegal immigrants living in California actually help American workers earn higher wages, and break fewer laws than other demographic groups in our state. When asked about his conclusions, the co-author of one of the reports, Ruben Rumbaut, told a newspaper that he hoped his work would "reduce prejudice" ----...

Global climate change is happening faster than previously believed and its impact is worse than expected, information from an as-yet unpublished draft of the long-awaited second part of a United Nations report obtained by SPIEGEL ONLINE reveals. No region of the planet will be spared and some will be hit especially hard. Is the world's weather already out of control? Is the pollution of the past decades having an impact on the present? That's exactly what the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change fears: Human influences over the last 30 years "have had a recognizable effect on many physical...

WASHINGTON - The sting of rising postal costs could be eased a bit by the introduction of a "forever" stamp that would remain valid for first-class postage despite future increases. The independent Postal Regulatory Commission scheduled a Monday morning briefing to announce its ruling on the Postal Service's requests to raise first-class rates 3 cents to 42 cents and to establish the permanent stamp. If the commission agrees, the matter goes back to the board of governors of the Postal Service, which is expected to schedule any rate changes in May. The commission can also reject or modify the rate...

Asteroid threat demands response, experts warn 16:26 17 February 2007 NewScientist.com news service Ivan Semeniuk, San Francisco If the asteroid Apophis hits Earth in 2036, it could slam into the Pacific Ocean, generating a tsunami that could devastate the west coast of North America (Illustration: Don Davis/NASA) Kamchatkans and Venezuelans beware. A 20-million-tonne asteroid could be heading your way. Californians have even more reason to worry - the asteroid is more likely to hit the Pacific Ocean, triggering a tsunami that could devastate the west coast of North America. These are among the scenarios projected for asteroid Apophis, which researchers...

Mysterious Egyptian Glass Formed by Meteorite Strike, Study Says Stefan Lovgren for National Geographic News December 21, 2006 Strange specimens of natural glass found in the Egyptian desert are products of a meteorite slamming into Earth between 100,000 and 200,000 years ago, scientists have concluded. The glass—known locally as Dakhla glass—represents the first clear evidence of a meteorite striking an area populated by humans. At the time of the impact, the Dakhla Oasis, located in the western part of modern-day Egypt, resembled the African savanna and was inhabited by early humans, according to archaeological evidence (see Egypt map.) "This meteorite...

NASA Images Suggest Water Still Flows in Brief Spurts on Mars 12.06.06    More Images:     + Groundwater May Be Responsible     + New Craters     + Fresh Crater in Arabia Terra NASA photographs have revealed bright new deposits seen in two gullies on Mars that suggest water carried sediment through them sometime during the past seven years. " These observations give the strongest evidence to date that water still flows occasionally on the surface of Mars," said Michael Meyer, lead scientist for NASA's Mars Exploration Program, Washington. Image right: A new gully deposit in a crater in the Centauri Montes...

UN downgrades man's impact on the climate Richard Gray, Science Correspondent, Sunday Telegraph Last Updated: 1:32am GMT 10/12/2006 Mankind has had less effect on global warming than previously supposed, a United Nations report on climate change will claim next year. The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says there can be little doubt that humans are responsible for warming the planet, but the organisation has reduced its overall estimate of this effect by 25 per cent. In a final draft of its fourth assessment report, to be published in February, the panel reports that the level of carbon dioxide in...

TUSCON, Ariz., Nov. 17, 2006 -- More than 2,000 miles from his home in Michigan City, Ind., and nearly 100 miles into the Arizona desert, Sgt. Brian Rogers, an Indiana National Guard member with the 938th Military Police Detachment, scans the brush and rugged terrain for anything worthy of a radio call to Tucson Sector Border Patrol. Indiana National Guard Sgt. Brian Clevenger follows a “dust devil” that might be a vehicle through his binoculars while assisting Tucson Sector Border Patrol Agents at an observation post in southern Arizona. U.S. Army photo  '(Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. He...

The new California law that requires registered domestic partners to file their state taxes like married people is a symbolic victory for gay couples. But the financial impact won't always be positive, and most will face new tax-filing and planning headaches when the law takes effect next year. Under SB1827, signed by Gov. Schwarzenegger last weekend, registered domestic partners can no longer file their state tax returns as single or head of household. For tax year 2007 and beyond, they can choose married filing jointly or married filing separately, the same options married couples generally have. However, domestic partners must...

LONDON (Reuters) - Breast feeding has no impact on a child's intelligence, according to new research published on Wednesday. Although breast feeding has many advantages for children including reducing infections, respiratory illnesses and diarrhea, enhancing a child's intelligence does not appear to be among them. "Breast feeding has little or no effect on intelligence in children," Geoff Der of Britain's Medical Research Council, said in a report published online by The British Medical Journal. The researchers found that although breast-fed children scored higher on IQ tests this was because their mothers tended be more intelligent, better educated and provided a...

Heavenly bodies stir up routine catastrophes March 18 2003 at 01:30PM By Graeme Addison Legend has it that when two people get together and er... bond, the Earth will move – at least in a metaphorical sense. Likewise, it takes two heavenly bodies, an impactor and a target, to come together with Earth-shattering force to form a crater. There’s nothing dreamlike about this: it happens, frequently, throughout the solar system. Impact catastrophes are routine. Just over two-billion years ago, a chunk of asteroid at least the size of Table Mountain struck the landmass that is now South Africa. It hurtled...