craters

Double asteroid trouble may have wiped out dinosaurs

When asteroids attack, dinosaurs lose. Though there are still competing theories as to why we lost awesome animals like Tyrannosaurus rex and Velociraptors, many scientists look to a long-ago asteroid impact to explain the wipeout.

A study published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters adds a new wrinkle to the asteroid assumption by suggesting that the dinos may have had to contend with not one, but two deadly balls of flying space rock. Titled "Morphology and population of binary asteroid impact craters," the study was lead by Katarina Miljkovic from the Institute of Earth Physics in Paris.

If you look out into space around Earth, you'll find that about 15 percent of asteroids are binary, meaning they're traveling in pairs. However, only 2 to 4 percent of craters on Earth have been labeled as binary impacts. Miljkovic believes this number is under-reported and that many binary asteroids have been overlooked because their craters overlap.… Read more

Take the rover for a spin around a virtual Mars crater

We've been exploring ways to immerse yourself in Mars without having to sign up for an experimental one-way space trip. You can play with a photo panorama, but you can also put yourself in Curiosity's shoes and take the rover for a crater ride.

NASA's Explore Mars: Free Drive online experience puts you in command of the rover in a virtual version of the Gale Crater on Mars.

It's fun to watch the rover's wheels react to the landscape. I made mine do doughnuts. There are plenty of points of interest available for exploration, including the landing site, a series of fractures, a canyon, sand dunes, and a phyllosilicate trough.… Read more

Timbuk2 Crater case: A little air for your Air

Timbuk2 makes some interesting laptop and tablet cases, and I thought it was worth highlighting the Crater laptop sleeve, which hit the market a few months back and is ostensibly designed for Apple's MacBook Air models but can also be used with slim Windows ultrabooks.

It has a rubbery, meshlike feel to it, and is very lightweight (I've used it for the last week with an 11-inch Macbook Air). The key feature is that if you hold it up to the light (or just look at it), you'll notice that it has lots of little perforations or &… Read more

Road Trip 2009 hits 4,000 miles in Glacier National Park

GLACIER NATIONAL PARK, Mont.--I'm kind of awestruck. For four years I've been doing CNET Road Trip projects, and every time I've hit a new thousand-mile milestone, I've stopped, photographed the odometer and the surroundings, and then blogged about the spot.

In almost every case, that new set of zeroes on the odometer has come at some nondescript location. There have been a couple cases where it happened near something incredible, but I'll be honest: I've cheated a little bit and, say, driven back and forth across a parking lot to have the milestone … Read more

Canon's lenses make a great Road Trip addition

TUCSON, ARIZ.--For more than a week now, I've been on Road Trip 2007, my journey around the Southwest visiting various science and technology-related sites, and I've been having a great time.

I've toured the nearly-hidden tunnels that go underneath the Las Vegas Strip, and braved my fear of heights on the Grand Canyon Skywalk. And I've peered into the Earth's past, and a scary future, at Arizona's Meteor Crater.

All the while, I've also been ferrying around a box full of high-tech gadgets to review, and I've been road-testing them as … Read more

Meteor Crater a sight to behold

METEOR CRATER, Ariz.--Don't call this a hole in the ground. It hurts the guides' feelings.

Instead, call this the best-preserved meteor crater in the world. And to look at it, how could you think anything else?

About 50,000 years ago, a 150-foot-diameter chunk of rock slammed into the Earth about 26 miles from what would eventually become Winslow, Ariz., pulverizing the ground and leaving this 4,100-foot-wide crater. It is a sight to behold.

I flew over it once, on a flight from New York to San Diego, and I thought, holy cow, what is that?

Now, … Read more

When heavy rain comes to dry land

WINSLOW, Ariz.--I'm standing on a corner in...

Well, if you're an Eagles fan, you get the picture.

Actually, I've just arrived in this town near the Meteor Crater--which I'll be visiting Sunday for a story and photo gallery for my Road Trip around the Southwest--after a long day on the road, and much of it was spent navigating through a heavy rain storm.

At first, it was odd that the outside temperature was dropping precipitously from the high-90s into the 70s and then the 60s.

But then it started to rain. A notable … Read more