Climate
Mars has Been Through Many Ice Ages in the Last Billion Years
Like Earth, Mars has experienced periods of extreme glaciation or ice sheet coverage, which are known as ice ages. As…
Scientists Think They Know What Caused the Deadliest Mass Extinction in the History of the Earth
Humanity can have a love/hate relationship with itself, but there's no denying that we're the pinnacle of evolution on Earth…
Pluto has Snowcapped Mountains, But Why?
We can thank NASA's New Horizons spacecraft for opening our eyes up to Pluto's complexity. On July 14th, 2015, the…
Climate Change is Making the Atmosphere Worse for Astronomy
Modern astronomical telescopes are extraordinarly powerful. And we keep making them more powerful. With telescopes like the Extremely Large Telescope…
Did Snowball Earth Happen Because of a Sudden Drop in Sunlight?
Hundreds of millions of years ago, Earth went through two episodes of severe glaciation. These two episodes—the Sturtian and the…
Martian Features Were Carved by Glaciers, not Flowing Rivers
Orbiters are giving us a chance to study the surface of Mars closely, and some of the features that pop…
This Giant Iceberg Has Been Sailing the Southern Seas for Three Years Now
An iceberg that calved off of from a larger ice formation has spent three years floating on the ocean near…
Even If We Cut Greenhouse Gas Emissions Tomorrow, it Would Take Decades for the Earth to Start Cooling Again
If—or hopefully when—we cut our Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, we won't notice much difference in the climate. The Earth's natural…
It Was Almost Certainly an Asteroid Impact that Wiped Out the Dinosaurs. In Fact, Volcanoes Might Have Helped Life Recover
It seems almost certain that an asteroid impact wiped out the dinosaurs. But only almost. Another competing theory won't completely…
The Coast of Antarctica is Starting to Turn Green
The Antarctic Peninsula is the northernmost part of Antarctica, and has the mildest climate on the continent. In January, the…