Earth
More Rocket Launches Could Damage the Ozone Layer
There are few things in this world that brings feelings of awe and wonder more than a rocket launch. Watching…
The Rapid Changes We’re Seeing With the Earth’s Magnetic Field Don’t Mean the Poles are About to Flip. This is Normal
One of the most interesting discoveries about Earth in the past few decades concerns the Earth's magnetic poles. Paleomagnetic records…
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…
Just a Few Pixels Would let Astronomers Map Surface Features on an Exoplanet Like Oceans and Deserts
Direct images of exoplanets are rare and lack detail. Future observatories might change that, but for now, exoplanet images don't…
Marsquakes are Caused by Shifting Magma
Before the InSight Lander arrived on Mars, scientists could only estimate what the planet's internal structure might be. Its size,…
Primordial Helium, Left Over From the Big Bang, is Leaking Out of the Earth
Something ancient and primordial lurks in Earth's core. Helium 3 (3He) was created in the first minutes after the Big…
The Building Blocks of Earth Could Have Come From Farther out in the Solar System
Earth formed over 4.5 billion years ago via accretion. Earth's building blocks were chunks of rock of varying sizes. From…
How did Earth go From Molten Hellscape to Habitable Planet?
Earth formed from the Sun's protoplanetary disk about 4.6 billion years ago. In the beginning, it was a molten spheroid…
Does the Entire Planet Have a Mind of its Own?
What is humanity? Do our minds set us apart from the rest of nature and from the rest of Earth?…
Massive Rocky Planets Probably Don’t Have big Moons
The Moon has orbited Earth since the Solar System's early days. Anyone who's ever spent time at the ocean can't…