Word: asteroidal
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...scientists hope that they will help provide clues to what caused the extinction. Because many of the eggs were found in clusters of four to ten, scientists think they may be the same age. Analysis may help settle whether a cataclysmic event such as a volcano or a large asteroid caused the extinction, but results will not be known for at least six months. The scientists were tipped off to the find by Vikas Amte, a local doctor. Regardless of whether the eggs hold the answer or not, Amte said the area where they were found should be cordoned...
...time, says physicist James Van Allen, the discoverer of Earth's radiation belt and a principal contributor to Pioneer's achievements, "this objective was regarded as a bold one." While unmanned U.S. and Soviet spacecraft had visited the inner planets, none had flown beyond Mars and braved the asteroid belt to reach Jupiter and the other outer planets. Indeed, many scientists feared that, in addition to the asteroids, the belt was laden with unseen particles that would collide with and destroy an intruding craft. But Pioneer 10 sailed through with nary a scratch...
...Earthlings are faced with not only an asteroid hurtling towards the planet but also treachery at home. Back on Earth, two villains named Barry Cuda and Lil Whitelies are trying to sabotage the mission...
Hurtling in from space some 16 million years ago, a giant asteroid slammed into the dusty surface of Mars and exploded with more power than a million hydrogen bombs, gouging a deep crater in the planet's crust and lofting huge quantities of rock and soil into the thin Martian atmosphere. While most of the debris fell back to the surface, some of the rocks, fired upward by the blast at high velocities, escaped the weak tug of Martian gravity and entered into orbits of their own around...
...Jones is vindicated: we see that some 16 million years ago, the slapstick asteroid A slammed into planet B (Mars, the fourth rock from the sun), dislodging spud-size meteorite C, which spitballed through space and whammed into planet D (Earth). Betimes, the alien microspud wakes up in the Antarctic and assumes the shape of an outlandishly hot idea, E (LIFE ON MARS!!!!), which pinballs hectically through Earthling media, knocking vases off the mantelpiece, toppling assumptions, causing tabloid amazement and theological consternation...