Microbial Continental Ecosystems Helped Seed Ancient Seas
Like our oceans, today’s continents are brimming with life. Yet billions of years ago, before the advent of plants, continents would have appeared barren. These…
Like our oceans, today’s continents are brimming with life. Yet billions of years ago, before the advent of plants, continents would have appeared barren. These…
New research review provides insights into the continent’s response to climate warming. Scientists from the University of Maryland, the University of Leeds, and the University…
Powerful Earth-observing instruments aboard NASA’s Terra and Aqua satellites, launched in 1999 and 2002, respectively, have observed nearly two decades of planetary change. Now, for…
Off the coast of Hawaii’s Big Island and more than 3,000 feet beneath the ocean surface lie the warm, bubbling springs of a volcano —…
As the International Space Station flew over the Indonesian coast of Sumatra on an April night, lightning from a thunderstorm reached the upper layers of…
Earth’s magnetic field provides an invisible but crucial barrier that protects Earth from the solar wind–a stream of charged particles launched from the sun’s outer…
NASA astronaut Ricky Arnold captured this clear view of Mount Rainier National Park as the International Space Station orbited above at about 17,500 miles per…
Our Sun provides the light and heat that energizes our plants, our solar panels and our weather, among other things. But its influence stretches over…
The Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History is having a gold rush — one in which prospectors can gaze at glittering specimens of radiating golden…
Thunderstorms in Earth’s upper atmosphere remain something of a mystery. Scientists cannot reach them directly with instruments; they are too high for balloons and too…
Each new season brings change. Seasonal change on land is something that we’re familiar with and adjust to regularly. But what happens to billions of…
Up until about ten years ago, scientists thought they had a pretty good picture of how the moon and Earth came to co-exist. Then more…
Large concentrations of sulfites and bisulfites in shallow lakes may have set the stage for Earth’s first biological molecules. Around 4 billion years ago, Earth…
On rare calm days, the most striking thing you notice at an altitude of more than 8,000 feet on an Antarctic glacier is the silence….
Antarctica’s great ice sheet is losing ground as it is eroded by warm ocean water circulating beneath its floating edge, a new study has found….
More Arctic sea ice is entering the North Atlantic Ocean than before, making it increasingly dangerous for ships to navigate those waters in late spring,…
When an earthquake strikes, nearby seismometers pick up its vibrations in the form of seismic waves. In addition to revealing the epicenter of a quake,…
Notanee Bourassa knew that what he was seeing in the night sky was not normal. Bourassa, an IT technician in Regina, Canada, trekked outside of…