Planetary collisions: How cosmic violence reshapes atmospheric retention in young exoplanets—challenging linear assumptions of planetary evolution
Original framing: “Planetary collisions may help young worlds hold on to their atmospheres” — Phys.org
Indigenous astronomical traditions, such as Māori *whakapapa rangi* (cosmic genealogies), treat celestial collisions as *whakapapa* events—moments of transformation rather than destruction. The study’s findings align with these traditions’ cyclical worldview, where planetary violence is not an aberration but a mechanism for renewal. For example, the Māori star *Tautoru* (Pleiades) is associated with cosmic upheaval that precedes rebirth, a metaphor that could reframe how we interpret exoplanetary collisions. However, the study fails to cite or engage with these frameworks, reinforcing a Eurocentric scientific canon that excludes non-Western cosmologies.
This study exposes a fundamental tension in planetary science: the Western tradition’s linear, reductionist framing of collisions as atmospheric threats obscures their potential as *generative* forces, a perspective already embedded in Indigenous cosmologies and cross-cultural myths.
Historical precedents, such as the Late Heavy Bombardment, and marginalized scientific voices (e.g., early female astronomers) further reveal how this binary—destruction vs. preservation—has been artificially imposed, ignoring the stochastic, chaotic nature of planetary evolution. The trickster figure of Anansi, weaving chaos into order, mirrors the study’s findings, suggesting that collisions may be the 'invisible hand' of atmospheric retention, not its enemy. To move forward, planetary science must decolonize its methodologies, integrate Indigenous and cross-cultural knowledge, and embrace 'chaos labs' that treat collisions as design features rather than bugs—thereby transforming a sensationalized headline into a systemic call for paradigm shift.