Tag Archive for 'Earth'

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...

This image shows a visual representation of one of the highest-energy neutrino detections superimposed on a view of the IceCube Observatory at the South Pole. Image credit: IceCube Collaboration.

Earth Can Absorb High-Energy Neutrinos, Physicists Find

Nov 23, 2017 by News Staff

Neutrinos are subatomic particles that are famous for passing through anything and everything. Now, physicists have demonstrated that our planet stops...

Enoto et al describe how gamma rays from lightning react with the air to produce radioisotopes and even positrons. Image credit: Teruaki Enoto, Kyoto University.

Lightning Strikes Produce Antimatter Particles in Earth’s Atmosphere

Nov 23, 2017 by News Staff

Scientists from Japan and Singapore report in the November 23 issue of the journal Nature that they observed positron (antimatter counterpart of the electron)...

Hypervelocity space dust is a unique entity in planetary systems like our Solar System, which is able to go past and enter the atmosphere of planets, collect samples of those planets and deposit samples of other planets. Image credit: Jonny Lindner.

Space Dust May Transport Biological Particles between Distant Planets, New Study Suggests

Nov 22, 2017 by News Staff

Streams of space dust that continually bombard Earth’s atmosphere could deliver microbial life and life essential molecules from distant planets, or...

HAWC map for the region around Geminga (about 815 light-years away in the constellation Gemini) and PSR B0656+14 (about 940 light-years away). Image credit: John Pretz.

Nearby Pulsars Shed Light on Origin of Excess Antimatter

Nov 17, 2017 by News Staff

Astrophysicists using the High-Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Gamma-Ray Observatory in Mexico have detected the extended emission of high-energy gamma...

Using a combination of the Biblical text and an ancient Egyptian text, Professor Humphreys and Dr. Graeme Waddington were able to refine the dates of the Egyptian pharaohs. Image credit: Pete Linforth.

Annular Solar Eclipse of 1207 BC Helps Date Egyptian Pharaohs

Oct 30, 2017 by News Staff

In a paper published on October 1 in the journal Astronomy & Geophysics, independent scholar and astrophysicist Graeme Waddington and University of...

Xinicaulis lignescens. The largest silicified trunk in the field, with a maximum diameter of 70 cm: oblique transverse (left) and lateral (right) views. The trunk is about 1 m long in preserved length. Image credit: Xu et al, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1708241114.

374-Million-Year-Old Tree Trunks Reveal Unique Growth Strategy

Oct 26, 2017 by News Staff

Massive, exceptionally well-preserved cladoxylopsid tree trunks found in Xinjiang, China, have revealed an interconnected web of woody strands (xylem)...

2012 TC4 appears as a dot at the center of this composite image of 37 individual 50-second exposures obtained with the FORS2 instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope in 2012. The asteroid is marked with a circle for a better identification. Image credit: ESO / ESA NEOCC / Olivier Hainaut, ESO / Marco Micheli, ESA / Detlef Koschny, ESA.

Small Asteroid 2012 TC4 to Whiz Safely by Earth This Week

Oct 11, 2017 by News Staff

Back in October 2012, a small (45-100 feet, or 15-30 m) asteroid known as 2012 TC4 had a close encounter with Earth. It passed our planet at a distance...

Based on various lines of geological and geophysical evidence, particularly those accumulated in the last two decades, Nick Mortimer et al argue that Zealandia is not a collection of partly submerged continental fragments but is a coherent 4.9 million km2 continent. NC - New Caledonia; WTP - West Torres Plateau; CT - Cato Trough; Cf - Chesterfield Islands; L - Lord Howe Island; N - Norfolk Island; K - Kermadec Islands; Ch - Chatham Islands; B - Bounty Islands; An - Antipodes Islands; Au - Auckland Islands; Ca - Campbell Island. Image credit: Nick Mortimer et al, doi: 10.1130/GSATG321A.1.

Zealandia: Researchers Return from Expedition to Earth’s Seventh Continent

Sep 28, 2017 by News Staff

Earlier this year, Zealandia was confirmed as Earth’s seventh continent, but little is known about it because it’s 94% submerged under water. After...

A young planetary system. Image credit: NASA / FUSE / Lynette Cook.

Research Sheds Light on Sequence of Events that Led to Creation of Earth and Mars

Sep 27, 2017 by News Staff

New research, reported in the journal Nature, changes scientists’ understanding of how terrestrial planets attain their physical and chemical characteristics. A...

A ‘Blue Marble’ image of the Earth taken from the VIIRS instrument aboard NASA’s Earth-observing satellite Suomi NPP (named in honor of Verner E. Suomi of the University of Wisconsin). This composite image uses a number of swaths of the Earth’s surface taken on January 4, 2012. Image credit: NASA / NOAA / GSFC / Suomi NPP / VIIRS / Norman Kuring.

Researchers Produce Estimate of Earth’s Elemental Composition

Sep 20, 2017 by News Staff

A team of researchers at the Australian National University in Canberra, Australia, has produced the most comprehensive estimate yet of Earth’s composition...

Wells et al estimate that there should be at least 10 -- currently undiscovered -- exoplanets which are favorably located to detect the Earth and are capable of sustaining life as we know it. Image credit: NASA.

Alien Astronomers On At Least Nine Known Exoplanets Could Spot Earth

Sep 8, 2017 by News Staff

Queen’s University Belfast astronomer Robert Wells and co-authors have turned exoplanet-hunting on its head, in a new study that instead looks at how...

This painting depicts an asteroid slamming into tropical, shallow seas of the sulfur-rich Yucatan Peninsula in what is today southeast Mexico. The aftermath of this immense asteroid collision, which occurred approximately 65 million years ago, is believed to have caused the extinction of the dinosaurs and many other species on Earth. Shown in this painting are pterodactyls, flying reptiles with wingspans of up to 50 feet, gliding above low tropical clouds. Image credit: Donald E. Davis / NASA.

Dino-Killing Chicxulub Asteroid Inhibited Photosynthesis, Cooled Earth for Up To Four Years

Aug 23, 2017 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the National Center for Atmospheric Research, the University of Colorado Boulder and NASA has used a world-class computer model...

‘Rise of Algae’ in Cryogenian Oceans Led to Appearance of First Complex Organisms, Study Says

Aug 17, 2017 by Enrico de Lazaro

The rapid rise of marine planktonic algae 659-645 million years ago (Cryogenian period), between the Sturtian and Marinoan ‘snowball Earth’ glaciations,...

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