{"id":2552,"date":"2014-07-27T18:10:39","date_gmt":"2014-07-27T23:10:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/?p=2552"},"modified":"2014-07-28T11:13:51","modified_gmt":"2014-07-28T16:13:51","slug":"can-fossils-survive-cosmic-impacts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/can-fossils-survive-cosmic-impacts\/","title":{"rendered":"Can fossils survive cosmic impacts?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_2550\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Postshot190713_02.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2550\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-2550\" src=\"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Postshot190713_02-300x235.jpg\" alt=\"Fragments recovered from an experiment in which frozen fossilized diatoms (aquatic microorganisms) were fired from a gun into a bag of water. The research suggests that fossils could survive be transferred to other planets via cosmic impacts. (Photo credit: University of Kent.)\" width=\"300\" height=\"235\" srcset=\"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Postshot190713_02-300x235.jpg 300w, http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Postshot190713_02.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2550\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fragments recovered from an experiment in which frozen fossilized diatoms (aquatic microorganisms) were fired from a gun into a bag of water. The research suggests that fossils could survive be transferred to other planets via cosmic impacts. (Photo credit: University of Kent.)<\/p><\/div>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"color: #222222;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">An experiment has shown that microscopic fossils can survive being fired from a gun and impacting at pressures up to 19 gigapascals (GPa). <\/span><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"color: #222222;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The fossils recovered by the researchers were\u00a0smaller as projectile speed increased, however intact fossils were recovered from all trials. Researchers made the discovery by\u00a0using\u00a0fossilized diatoms &#8211; aquatic microorganisms with silica-based shells &#8211; frozen into ice and firing\u00a0them from a gas gun into a plastic bag full of water. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"color: #222222;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The results support the possibility that fossilized material ejected from Earth via cosmic impacts could successfully be transferred to the Moon or other parts of the solar system.<\/span><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"color: #222222;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Paper available on request.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org\/lookup\/doi\/10.1098\/rsta.2013.0190\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Original research paper<\/span><\/a>\u00a0published in the\u00a0journal\u00a0<em><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical and Physical Sciences<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/em>on\u00a0<strong>July 28, 2014<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><em><strong>Names and affiliations of selected\u00a0authors<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<h4><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Mark Burchell, University of Kent, United Kingdom<\/span><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An experiment has shown that microscopic fossils can survive being fired from a gun and impacting at pressures up to 19 gigapascals (GPa). The fossils recovered by the researchers were\u00a0smaller as projectile speed increased, however intact fossils were recovered from all trials. Researchers made the discovery by\u00a0using\u00a0fossilized diatoms &#8211; aquatic microorganisms with silica-based shells &#8211; [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2550,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[2035,265,1938,533],"class_list":["post-2552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-paper-of-interest","tag-extraterrestrial-life","tag-fossil","tag-fossils","tag-space"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Postshot190713_02.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4DqbN-Fa","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2552"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2552\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2574,"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2552\/revisions\/2574"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}