Earth
Since Interstellar Objects Crashed Into Earth in the Past, Could They Have Brought Life?
On October 19th, 2017, astronomers with the Pan-STARRS survey detected an interstellar object (ISO) passing through our Solar System for…
We Just had the Strongest Solar Flare in the Current Solar Cycle
On December 14th, at 12:02 PM Eastern (09:02 AM Pacific), the Sun unleashed a massive solar flare. According to the…
It Doesn't Take Much to Get a Runaway Greenhouse Effect
During the 1960s, the first robotic explorers began making flybys of Venus, including the Soviet Venera 1 and the Mariner…
It Doesn’t Take Much to Get Tilted Planets
Chinese and Indian astronomers were the first to measure Earth's axial tilt accurately, and they did it about 3,000 years…
The Combination of Oxygen and Methane Could Reveal the Presence of Life on Another World
In a recent study, a pair of researchers from the Carl Sagan Institute developed a model for finding exoplanets similar…
OSIRIS-REx Returned Carbon and Water from Asteroid Bennu
Carbon and water are so common on Earth that they're barely worth mentioning. But not if you're a scientist. They…
If Earth is Average, We Should Find Extraterrestrial Life Within 60 Light-Years
A new study estimates that there could be 11,000 habitable planets within 100 parsecs of our Sun, the nearest being…
NASA Confirms That 2023 was the Hottest Summer on Record
Yesterday, NASA's Goddard Institute of Space Studies (GISS) announced that the summer of 2003 was the hottest on record. This…
Interpreting Dune Patterns: Insights from Earth and Mars
A recent study published in the journal Geology attempts to interpret the patterns of dunes, which are sand mounds frequently…
The Most Intense Lightning Ever Seen Came From Last Year's Tonga Volcano Eruption
The enormous undersea volcano that erupted in Tonga last year was record-breaking in many regards. It generated the highest-ever recorded…