Climate
Flowing Martian Water was Protected by Sheets of Carbon Dioxide
Mars' ancient climate is one of our Solar System's most perplexing mysteries. The planet was once wet and warm; now…
How Vegetation Could Impact the Climate of Exoplanets
The term 'habitable zone' is a broad definition that serves a purpose in our age of exoplanet discovery. But the…
Ocean Salinity Affects Earth’s Climate. How About on Exoplanets?
There's a link between Earth's ocean salinity and its climate. Salinity can have a dramatic effect on the climate of…
What Deadly Venus Can Tell Us About Life on Other Worlds
Even though Venus and Earth are so-called sister planets, they're as different as heaven and hell. Earth is a natural…
Earth’s Long-Term Habitability Relies on Chemical Cycles. How Can We Better Understand Them?
We, and all other complex life, require stability to evolve. Planetary conditions needed to be benign and long-lived for creatures…
Can the Gaia Hypothesis Be Tested in the Lab?
During the 1970s, inventor/environmentalist James Lovelock and evolutionary biologist Lynn Margulis proposed the Gaia Hypothesis. This theory posits that Earth…
In 250 Million Years, a Single Supercontinent will Form, Wiping Out Nearly all Mammals
A recent study published in Nature Geoscience uses supercomputer climate models to examine how a supercontinent, dubbed Pangea Ultima (also…
Could We Find Aliens Terraforming Other Worlds?
The first early humans to use fire had no inkling of what it would lead to. Fire was one of…
Scientists Have Been Underestimating the Asteroid That Created the Biggest Known Crater on Earth
Ancient impacts played a powerful role in Earth's complex history. On other Solar System bodies like the Moon or Mercury,…
Antarctica Lost an Ice Shelf, but Gained an Island
Collapsing ice shelves on the eastern coast of Antarctica has revealed something never seen before: a landform that might be…