Heavy snow and difficult travel expected again, heaviest snow in southern Minnesota

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support

More than 60 million years ago, an object the size of a small city barreled into planet Earth,  traveling at more than 22,000 miles per hour.

That meteoroid, many scientists believe, triggered a set of cataclysmic climate changes and natural disasters that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs. But what triggered the meteoroid?

Lisa Randall, a particle physicist and bestselling author, tackles this question in her book, "

Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs: The Astounding Interconnectedness of the Universe.

Randall theorizes that the meteoroid was a comet that was dislodged from its orbit when the solar system passed through a disc of dark matter.

If you're now wondering, "what's dark matter?", you're not alone. Dark matter is one of the great mysteries of modern science.

Dark matter acts like matter, Randall said, "but what distinguishes it is that light just goes right through it. ... I wouldn't call it dark — I would call it transparent."

"Billions of dark matter particles are going through us every second, but we don't know it because they're not interacting with us."

In 2015, Randall joined MPR News host Kerri Miller

 to talk about her dark matter research and other mysteries of the universe. Let it whet your appetite for the conversation with novelist Emily St. John Mandel coming this Friday, which explores time travel in a futuristic world. 

To listen to the full conversation you can use the audio player above.

Subscribe to the MPR News with Kerri Miller podcast on 

for the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations.

Arts and Culture

The Thread® - Books and Literary News

Shows

Big Books & Bold Ideas with Kerri Miller

Host

Author

This Friday, MPR News host Kerri Miller talks with Emily St. John Mandel about her much-anticipated and just released novel “Sea of Tranquility.” It asks some big philosophical and science fiction questions about time travel. So as a throwback, we thought you’d enjoy this 2015 conversation with astrophysicist Lisa Randall, who says there’s a closer parallel between imagination and science than you might guess.

From the archives: Physicist Lisa Randall on dark matter, meteoroids and the demise of the dinosaurs

Go Deeper.

Like this?