Brachiosaurus: With very long necks and short tails, these enormous dinosaurs have been likened to huge giraffes. Unlike most dinos, their front legs were longer than their hind limbs. Their body shape would have allowed these mammoth creatures to reach their heads as much as 12 meters (39 feet) above the ground — high enough to browse the leaves of tall trees. Big adults could have weighed nearly 80 metric tons and reached a length of nearly 25 meters (82 feet).
carbon: A chemical element that is the physical basis of all life on Earth. Carbon exists freely as graphite and diamond. It is an important part of coal, limestone and petroleum, and is capable of self-bonding, chemically, to form an enormous number of chemically, biologically and commercially important molecules. (in climate studies) The term carbon sometimes will be used almost interchangeably with carbon dioxide to connote the potential impacts that some action, product, policy or process may have on long-term atmospheric warming.
carbon fiber: Tiny fibers made of carbon atoms. Each fiber is between 5 to 10 micrometers thick (perhaps a tenth of the width of a human hair). Strong and lightweight, carbon fibers can be used to reinforce everything from the blades of helicopters to protective fabrics.
debris: Scattered fragments, typically of trash or of something that has been destroyed. Space debris, for instance, includes the wreckage of defunct satellites and spacecraft.
diffuse: adj.) To be spread out thinly over a great area; not concise or concentrated. (v) To spread light or to broadly release some substance through a liquid (such as water or air) or through some surface (such as a membrane).
dinosaur: A term that means terrible lizard. These reptiles emerged around 243 million years ago. All descended from egg-laying reptiles known as archosaurs. Their descendants eventually split into two lines. For many decades, they have been distinguished by their hips. The lizard-hipped line are…
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