Thinning Atmosphere Explains Flying Dinos - Dr. Donald Pettit, NASA Astronaut

Astronaut Donald Pettit champions a theory he developed while studying under Octave Levenspiel at Oregon State University. In short, it is apparent that large winged dinosaurs could not fly under today's atmospheric conditions. Pettit suggests that the solution to dino-flight is that the Earth's atmosphere was much thicker in the past, lending buoyancy to the giant animals while maintaining today's ratios of elemental composition. If this trend is extended long before the dinosaurs we end up with a hypothetical atmosphere as thick as Venus or even more. The theory then raises the question: what events caused the atmosphere to disappear?  

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#ThickAtmosphereTheory #Pterosaurs #NASA

Levenspiel Thick Atmosphere Theory:  http://levenspiel.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/DinosaurW.pdf

Esker Thick Atmosphere Theory:  https://www.dinosaurtheory.com/big_dinosaur.html

Check our short-films channel, @DemystifyingScience:  https://youtu.be/1OCL5Lq8m6s

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PODCAST INFO:  Anastasia completed her PhD studying microbial communication at Columbia University. When not talking to brilliant people or making movies, she spends her time painting and exploring the woods. Michael Shilo also did his PhD at Columbia studying the elastic properties of molecular water. When he's not in the film studio, he's exploring sound in music. They are both freelance professors at various universities.   

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