NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has been great for understanding space and the universe. It was the Hubble and Keck telescopes that have given great insights into the formation of galaxies. Galaxies take ages to mature and this time span is in the billions of years. Being a space enthusiast for so long, this is actually not news to me.
What to watch for tonight?
The Orionid meteor shower will be a sight to see. The Earth is moving through some debris left over by Halley’s Comet in its orbit around our Sun. The debris are moving at speeds of 148,000 mph and the brilliant flash of light we see is due to it burning up in the atmosphere. There is another meteor shower that Halley’s Comet is responsible for and it occurs every summer in May. The shower is best seen by getting away from the city.
Halley’s Comet will next be seen in our skies in 2061.
Mass extinction event attributed to global warming
There was a mass extinction event that happened after the Permian Era. This was about 250 million years ago and was probably the hottest the Earth has ever been. This period of extreme global warming wiped out 95 percent of the species on this planet at the time. Fossil fuels from this period have been examined and the low diversity of live around the time of this extreme global warming confirms this.
The good thing is that the current global warming levels are nowhere near the end-Permian level.