Tag Archive for 'Earth'

These SEM images show cosmic spherules and unmelted micrometeorites from the CONCORDIA collection, from left to right, top to bottom: glassy cosmic spherule, stony cosmic spherule, partially melted micrometeorite, unmelted fine-grained micrometeorite. Image credit: Rojas et al., doi: 10.1016/j.epsl.2021.116794.

Study: 5,200 Tons of Extraterrestrial Dust Reach Earth’s Surface Each Year

Apr 13, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

In a new paper published in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters, an international team of researchers presents the results from a long-term...

Life may have begun shortly after Earth formed 4.54 billion years ago. Image credit: Hadeano.

Permanent Oxygenation of Earth’s Atmosphere Occurred Later than Previously Thought

Apr 6, 2021 by News Staff

Oxygen levels fluctuated dramatically for about 200 million years after the start of the Great Oxidation Event, with permanent atmospheric oxygenation...

An illustration of early Earth, as it would have looked around 4 billion years ago. Image credit: Lucy Entwisle.

Lightning Strikes Played Role in Creating Prebiotic Phosphorus on Early Earth, Study Suggests

Mar 18, 2021 by News Staff

Phosphorus is one of the key elements for life, involved in biomolecules such as DNA, RNA, phospholipids, and adenosine triphosphate. Phosphide minerals...

This illustration depicts ultraviolet polar aurorae on Jupiter and Earth. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / UVS / STScI / MODIS / WIC / IMAGE / University of Liège.

Jupiter’s Dawn Storms are Remarkably Similar to Earth’s Auroral Substorms

Mar 18, 2021 by News Staff

Dawn storms consist of short-lived but intense brightening and broadening of Jupiter’s main auroral oval near where the atmosphere emerges from darkness...

Computer model of the Antikythera Mechanism’s display: in the center, the dome of the Earth, the phase of the Moon and its position in the Zodiac -- then rings for Mercury, Venus, true Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Date, with ‘little sphere’ markers and smaller markers for oppositions. Scale marks and index letters for the synodic cycles of the planets are inscribed on the planet rings. Surrounding these, the Zodiac and the Egyptian Calendar. The true Sun ring has a ‘little golden sphere’ with ‘pointer.’ When the Moon and Sun pointers coincide, the Moon sphere shows black for New Moon; when the pointers are on opposite sides, the Moon sphere shows white for Full Moon. The Head of the Dragon Hand shows the ascending lunar node; the Tail the descending node. Small triangles on the true Sun ring, near the pointer, show wider and narrower eclipse limits. Eclipses are possible if the Dragon Hand is within these limits. When the Moon pointer is before the Head of the Dragon, the Moon is South of the node; after, it is North of the node -- conversely for the descending node. A Date pointer is attached to a narrow date ring, showing the date in the Egyptian Calendar. Image credit: Freeth et al., doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-84310-w.

Scientists Step Closer to Understanding Full Capabilities of Antikythera Mechanism

Mar 15, 2021 by News Staff

A team of researchers from University College London and the Cyprus Institute’s Science and Technology in Archaeology and Culture Research Center has...

This is an artist's impression of a rocky and water-rich asteroid being torn apart by the strong gravity of the white dwarf star GD 61. Image credit: Mark A. Garlick, Space-art.co.uk / University of Warwick / University of Cambridge.

Relatively Large Near-Earth Asteroid to Fly Safely Past Our Planet on March 21

Mar 12, 2021 by News Staff

2001 FO32, a near-Earth asteroid discovered two decades ago, will fly safely past Earth on March 21, 2021, at a distance of about 2 million (1.25 million...

The inner core of our planet has an inner core of its own, with crystals aligned in a different direction. Image credit: Lachina Publishing Services.

Geoscientists Confirm Existence of Earth’s Innermost Inner Core

Mar 8, 2021 by News Staff

Earth’s inner core has an inner core of its own and its distinct properties may point to a dramatic event in the history of our planet, according to...

Stromatolites at Shark Bay, Western Australia. Image credit: Paul Harrison / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Viruses May Have Played Important Role in Creating Earth’s Earliest Lifeforms

Mar 4, 2021 by News Staff

Viruses may be the missing piece of the puzzle that could help explain how soft microbial mats transition into hard stromatolites that are prevalent in...

Global distribution of production rates of radiolytic hydrogen and radiolytic oxidants in marine sediment; rates are expressed in mol electron equivalents/cm2/year; in electron equivalents, water radiolysis produces hydrogen and oxidized chemicals at equal rates; although abyssal clay has a volumetric radiolytic production rate an order of magnitude higher than the volumetric rate for continental-margin sediment types, the sediment layer that blankets open-ocean regions is much thinner and consequently has much lower vertically integrated radiolytic production than the sediment of continental margins. Image credit: Sauvage et al., doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-21218-z.

Subseafloor Microbial Communities Survive on Products of Radioactive Process, Study Suggests

Mar 3, 2021 by News Staff

Radionuclides are ubiquitous in sediment and rock, where their decay leads to the production of hydrogen and oxidized chemicals via radiolysis of water;...

Researchers Observe ‘Space Hurricane’ in Earth’s Ionosphere

Mar 2, 2021 by News Staff

Hurricanes in the Earth’s low atmosphere are well known; however, disturbances resembling hurricanes had never before been detected in the upper atmosphere. An...

An artist’s impression of a water-world exoplanet. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Aquatic Planets are Common in Our Milky Way Galaxy, Study Suggests

Feb 23, 2021 by News Staff

In a study published in the journal Science Advances, a team of European astronomers shows that water can be delivered to a terrestrial planet in the form...

Distribution of Earth’s continental crust, ocean basins and plate boundaries in the plate model at present day. Tan polygons are areas of continental lithosphere in the Neoproterozoic, blue polygons are areas of present-day continental lithosphere. Abbreviations: A - Amazonia; Ant - Antarctica; AUS - Australia; BP - Borborema Province; CCT - Chinese Central Tianshan; Cu - Cuyania; CY - Chu Yili; K - Kalahari; KMT - Krygyz Middle Tianshan; KNT - Krygyz North Tianshan; KST - Krygyz South Tianshan; N-B - Nigeria-Benin; NC - North China; P - Paranapanema; ANS - Arabian Nubian Shield; Qa - Qaidam; Qi - Qilian; RDLP - Rio de la Plata; SC - South China; SM - Sahara Metacraton; T - Tarim; WAC - West African Craton. Image credit: Merdith et al., doi: 10.1016/j.earscirev.2020.103477.

New Video Shows Movement of Earth’s Tectonic Plates over Past Billion Years

Feb 10, 2021 by News Staff

An international team of geoscientists has created the first continuous full-plate model with evolving plate boundaries spanning one billion year ago to...

This image was captured on November 18, 2020, by the SoloHI camera on board Solar Orbiter. Venus (left), Earth (middle), and Mars (right) are visible in the foreground. Stars are visible in the background, appearing to move in Solar Orbiter’s recording while the spacecraft travels around the Sun. The Sun is located on the right, outside the video frame. Image credit: ESA / NASA / Solar Orbiter / SoloHI Team / U.S. Naval Research Laboratory.

Solar Orbiter Spots Venus, Earth and Mars

Jan 28, 2021 by News Staff

Solar Orbiter, a collaborative mission between ESA and NASA to study the Sun, has captured a series of images showing three solar system planets: Venus,...

Blue jet: (a) the cloud-top altitude of the storm cell over the South Pacific on February 26, 2019, at 15:10 UTC, derived from the Japanese Himawari meteorological satellite data and from a radio sounding at Tarawa at a distance of approximately 700 km (435 miles); the green curve is the ISS orbit and the red marker its position at 15:10:05 UTC; the black curves identify the full field of view of the cameras projected to the Earth’s surface, and the white square is the cropped image, downloaded from the ISS and shown in (b); black markers are the lightning locations detected by the GLD360 network between 15:10:00 and 15:11:40 UTC; (b) the cropped, downlinked ASIM image (777.4 nm) of the cloud backlit by internal lightning; the source locations of the five blue flash events detected between 15:10:00 and 15:11:35 UTC are shown with colored markers, time progressing from red to yellow. The flash leading to a blue jet is event number 3. Image credit: Neubert et al., doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-03122-6.

Blue Jet Observed from International Space Station

Jan 26, 2021 by News Staff

Using the Atmosphere-Space Interactions Monitor (ASIM) observatory on the International Space Station (ISS), researchers have observed five intense blue...

This artist’s impression shows the first interstellar asteroid -- 1I/2017 U1 (’Oumuamua). Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO.

Alien Debris Passed through Solar System in 2017, Astronomer Says

Jan 18, 2021 by Natali Anderson

Professor Abraham (Avi) Loeb of Harvard University believes that 1I/2017 U1 ‘Oumuamua, a fast moving, cigar-shaped object of extrasolar origin discovered...

Ankylosaurus magniventris, a large armored dinosaur species, witnesses the impact of an asteroid, falling on the Yucatan peninsula 66 million years ago. Image credit: Fabio Manucci.

Non-Marine Mass Extinctions Occur with Periodicity of 27.5 Million Years: Study

Dec 11, 2020 by News Staff

Non-marine animals (amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals) have apparently experienced at least 10 distinct episodes of intensified extinctions over...

A whimsical view of the planets of our Solar System and the missions sent from Earth to explore them. Image credit: Jenny Mottar / NASA.

Astronomers Discover New ‘Celestial Autobahn’ in Solar System

Dec 9, 2020 by News Staff

An international team of astronomers from Serbia and the United States has discovered a new superhighway network to travel through our Solar System much...

Jupiter and Saturn have been traveling across the sky together all year, but in December, get ready for them to really put on a show. Over the first three weeks of the month, watch each evening as the two planets get closer in the sky than they’ve appeared in two decades. Look for them low in the southwest in the hour after sunset, Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Jupiter and Saturn Will Form ‘Double Planet’ for First Time since Middle Ages

Dec 8, 2020 by News Staff

On December 21, 2020, the Solar System’s two gas giants will appear closer together in Earth’s night sky than they have been since 1226 CE. Jupiter...

Hayabusa-2’s container with material from the near-Earth asteroid Ryugu and its parachute in South Australia. Image credit: JAXA.

Hayabusa-2 Returns Samples of Asteroid Ryugu to Earth

Dec 7, 2020 by News Staff

On December 6, 2020, JAXA’s Hayabusa-2 spacecraft delivered a landing capsule with samples of material collected from the surface of the near-Earth asteroid...

Position and velocity map of the Milky Way Galaxy; arrows show position and velocity data for 224 objects used to model the Galaxy; the solid black lines show the positions of the Galaxy’s spiral arms; the colors indicate groups of objects belonging the same arm. Image credit: NAOJ.

Milky Way’s Supermassive Black Hole is Closer than Astronomers Thought

Nov 27, 2020 by News Staff

The distance between our Solar System and Sagittarius A*, the 4-million-solar-mass black hole at the center of our Milky Way Galaxy, is approximately 25,800...

«‹11 121314 15 ›»