Tag Archive for 'Earth'

Perera et al find babies exposed in the womb to high levels of air pollution had shortened telomeres. Image credit: Chris LeBoutillier.

Study: High Levels of Air Pollution May Shorten Telomeres in Newborns

Jan 25, 2018 by News Staff

A new study, conducted before and after the 2004 closure of a coal-burning power plant in China, found children born before the closure had shorter telomeres...

Future telescopes like the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope (right) will observe the atmospheres of distant planets to seek evidence of life. Earth (top left) has several gases in its atmosphere that reveal the presence of life, primarily oxygen and ozone. Krissansen-Totton et al find that for the early Earth (bottom left), the combination of abundant methane and carbon dioxide would provide an alternative sign of life. Image credit: NASA / Wikimedia Commons / Joshua Krissansen-Totton.

Astrobiologists Find New Way to Detect Extraterrestrial Life

Jan 25, 2018 by News Staff

A team of astrobiologists from the Universities of Washington and California has found a simple approach to look for alien life that might be more promising...

Diamonds with garnet inclusions (like the one shown here) can form at depths down to 342 miles below the Earth’s surface. Image credit: Jeff W. Harris, University of Glasgow.

Geologists Find Highly Oxidized Iron in Earth’s Deep Mantle

Jan 24, 2018 by News Staff

An international team of geologists has found highly oxidized iron, similar to the rust we see on the Earth’s surface, in diamond’s garnet inclusions...

A schematic showing the processes involved in deep-sea mining for the three main types of mineral deposit. Image credit: Design Studio, University of Exeter.

Deep-Sea Mining Could Destroy Marine Ecosystems, Study Says

Jan 23, 2018 by News Staff

Mining on the ocean floor could do irreversible damage to marine ecosystems, according to a new study from the University of Exeter and Greenpeace Research...

Mount Etna, with Catania in the foreground. Image credit: Ben Aveling / CC BY-SA 4.0.

Small Volcanic Crystals Could Help Predict Eruptions

Jan 23, 2018 by News Staff

Tiny crystals of clinopyroxenes that form deep in volcanoes may be the key for advance warnings before volcanic eruptions, according to a team of vulcanologists...

Asteroid 2016 HO3 has an orbit around the Sun that keeps it as a constant companion of our planet. This is an artist’s impression of an asteroid. Image credit: Mark A. Garlick, Space-art.co.uk / University of Warwick / University of Cambridge.

Intermediate-Sized Asteroid to Safely Pass Earth Next Month

Jan 22, 2018 by News Staff

An intermediate-sized asteroid discovered sixteen years ago will fly safely past Earth on February 4, 2018 at 4:30 p.m. EST (1:30 p.m. PST, 21:30 UTC). This...

Berliner et al review current virology research pertinent to astrobiology and propose ideas for future astrovirology research foci. Image credit: Arek Socha / FL.

Viruses Are Everywhere, Maybe Even in Space, Biologists Say

Jan 19, 2018 by News Staff

Viruses are the most abundant and one of the least understood biological entities on modern Earth. They might also exist in space, but as of yet scientists...

A salt crystal recovered from the Zag meteorite. Image credit: Queenie Chan, Open University.

Scientists Find Primordial Organic Matter in Two Meteorites

Jan 11, 2018 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the United States, UK and Japan has found liquid water and a mix of complex organic compounds in 4.5-billion-year-old salt crystals...

This color composite image of the Earth and Moon is made from data captured by OSIRIS-REx’s MapCam instrument on October 2, 2017, when the spacecraft was approximately 3,180,000 miles (5,120,000 km) from Earth. Image credit: NASA/ OSIRIS-REx Team / University of Arizona.

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Spacecraft Spies Earth and Moon

Jan 3, 2018 by News Staff

On October 2, 2017, just ten days after performing an Earth Gravity Assist maneuver, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft pointed its camera suite back toward...

This image shows how the solar wind transports ions of oxygen from the Earth’s atmosphere to the Moon. Image credit: Osaka University / NASA.

Moon Has Earth’s Oxygen, Planetary Researchers Say

Jan 2, 2018 by News Staff

A team of Japanese planetary researchers led by Osaka University’s Professor Kentaro Terada has discovered that the solar wind and Earth’s magnetic...

Saturn’s Great Northern Storm churning through the atmosphere in the planet’s northern hemisphere overtakes itself as it encircles the planet in this true-color view from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. This picture, captured on February 25, 2011, was taken about 12 weeks after the storm began, and the clouds by this time had formed a tail that wrapped around the gas giant. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute.

Saturn’s Northern Storms Cause Disturbances in Its ‘Heartbeat’

Dec 31, 2017 by News Staff

Giant storms in Saturn’s northern hemisphere can disturb atmospheric patterns at the ringed giant’s equator, according to new research published in...

This artist’s concept depicts the dry environment seen at Mars today versus the early Martian environment. Image credit: Simon Fraser University.

Study: Martian Surface Water Was Absorbed by Planet’s Crust

Dec 24, 2017 by News Staff

According to a new study published in the journal Nature, the Sun may not have evaporated away all of the Martian surface water after all; instead, Mars’...

Research conducted in laboratories has previously shown that bacteria can stay alive at extremely cold temperatures, but the new study by Redeker et al is the first time that bacteria have been observed altering the polar snow environment in situ. Image credit: Robyn M.

Researchers Directly Observe Microbial Activity in Polar Snow for First Time

Dec 21, 2017 by News Staff

An international team led by University of York researchers has directly observed microbial activity in Antarctic and Arctic snow — an environment...

3.465-billion-year-old fossil microbes indicate that life in the Universe is common. Image credit: Reimund Bertrams.

Study: Simple Life Forms are Common throughout Universe

Dec 19, 2017 by News Staff

A detailed analysis of 3.465-billion-year-old microbial microfossils provides evidence to support an increasingly widespread understanding that life in...

NASA’s SeaWiFS satellite photographed this eddy field in the waters around Tasmania in November 2000. Image credit: NASA.

Scientists Find ‘Smoke Rings’ in Earth’s Oceans

Dec 17, 2017 by News Staff

A team of scientists from the United Kingdom has spotted the equivalent of smoke-rings in the Earth’s southern oceans which they think could ‘suck-up’...

The Site 1 on the Isle of Skye is above the treeline in the mid-ground far side of Loch Slapin. Image credit: Simon Drake.

60-Million-Year-Old Meteorite Impact Zone Discovered on Scotland’s Isle of Skye

Dec 15, 2017 by News Staff

A team of geologists has found 60 million-year-old ejecta from a previously unknown meteorite impact on the Isle of Skye, northwest Scotland. This is the...

A 1.5-mm-long impact track of a meteoroid captured in aerogel exposed to space by the European Retrievable Carrier (EURECA) spacecraft. Image credit: NASA / ESA.

Simulations Reveal Why Meteoroids Explode Before They Reach Earth

Dec 13, 2017 by News Staff

According to a paper published in the journal Meteoritics & Planetary Science, Earth’s atmosphere is a better shield from meteoroids than scientists...

Gas-phase structure of alpha-pinene was experimentally unveiled, using Fourier transform microwave spectroscopy and quantum chemical calculations. Image credit: Elias M. Neeman.

Scientists Determine Structure of Alpha-Pinene, Major Component of Forest Aroma

Dec 11, 2017 by News Staff

An international team of scientists from France and Spain has accurately determined the gas-phase structure of alpha-pinene, a molecule emitted into the...

The International Space Station. Image credit: NASA.

Study: Microbial Community on International Space Station Resembles Homes on Earth

Dec 8, 2017 by Natali Anderson

The microbial community composition on the International Space Station (ISS) is more similar to home surfaces than to the human microbiome samples, according...

Marchi et al modeled the protracted period of bombardment after the Moon formed, determining that impactor metals may have descended into Earth’s core. This artistic rendering illustrates a large impactor crashing into the young Earth. Light brown and gray particles indicate the projectile’s mantle (silicate) and core (metal) material, respectively. Image credit: Southwest Research Institute.

Large Planetesimals Delivered More Mass to Proto-Earth than Previously Thought

Dec 5, 2017 by News Staff

After the Moon’s formation, Earth experienced a protracted bombardment by large (over 1,500 km in diameter) planetesimals. Dr. Simone Marchi, a researcher...

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