Earth
NOAA’s New Weather Satellite is Operational, and its Pictures of Earth are Gorgeous
You'd have to be in some kind of sense-of-wonder-repressed coma not to appreciate satellite images of Earth. If you are,…
Earth’s Water is 4.5 Billion Years Old
The origin of Earth's water has been an enduring mystery. There are different hypotheses and theories explaining how the water…
Asteroids Didn’t Create the Moon’s Largest Craters. Left-Over Planetesimals Did
The Moon's pock-marked surface tells the story of its history. It's marked by over 9,000 impact craters, according to the…
OK, Artemis. Now You’re Just Showing Off. A Stunning View of the Moon Eclipsing Earth From the Orion Spacecraft
Have you ever seen a lunar eclipse of the Earth from the far side of the Moon? Now we have.…
Mars Once had Enough Water for a Planet-Wide Ocean 300 Meters Deep
New research has shown that Mars may have been covered in a worldwide ocean when Earth was still covered in…
What’s the Best Mix of Oceans to Land for a Habitable Planet?
Earth is about 29% land and 71% oceans. How significant is that mix for habitability? What does it tell us…
Volcanoes are the worst. They’ve caused extinctions on Earth, and probably killed Venus
Is there anything good about volcanoes? They can be violent, dangerous, and unpredictable. For modern humans, volcanoes are mostly an…
Three New Potentially Hazardous Asteroids Discovered, Including a big one That Measures 1.5 km Across
An asteroid 1.5 km across is no joke. Even a much smaller one, about the size of a house, can…
The Most Devastating Solar Storms in History are Scoured Into Tree Rings
Trees are like sentinels that preserve a record of shifting climates. Their growth rings hold that history and dendrochronology studies…
How Dangerous are Nearby Supernovae to Life on Earth?
Life and supernovae don't mix. From a distance, supernovae explosions are fascinating. A star more massive than our Sun runs…