Awesome Moonrise Video.



Via Io9.

Wow! Science - with all these theories explaining all the mass extinction event, it is hard to conclude anything other than that the Universe is trying to kill us.

A new theory for the Permian extinction - massive release of methane from the oceans may have killed half of all life on earth:

Researchers at the Nordic Center for Earth Evolution at the University of Copenhagen claim to have discovered the cause of the extinction of over half the Earth's marine life 200 million years ago, reports Fox News. The cause, it seems, was a giant "Earth burp."


That is, a huge quantity of methane being released into the atmosphere.

The methane release likely originated from the sea floor, according to the study, and added a huge amount of carbon to the atmosphere, killing many species. LiveScience reports that the find suggests this event killed a number of species, paving the way for the rise of the dinosaurs.

The gas was releases over a period of 600,000 years, according to the report.

Scientists came to this conclusion by analyzing the chemical content of plant leaves preserved in the sediment at the bottom of the Tethys Ocean. By studying the different carbon isotopes in the sediment, scientists were able to draw these conclusions, reports LiveScience.

The researchers found a peak in favor of the lighter isotope, carbon 12, for a stint lasting about 20,000 to 40,000 years.

A strong shift in the ratio indicated that methane, not carbon dioxide, was responsible, Ruhl said.

Here is the Wiki article on the Permian-Triassic Extinction Event.

What an awesome universe!

Scientists discover Jupiter-like exo-planet that rotates the opposite way from the rotation of its sun!

Read the linked story to find out why that is so cool and how it may have happened.