Explore Evolution on Earth in The Most Comprehensive Tree of Life Ever Created

Spiraling fractal branches draw connections between a staggering 2.2 million living species on Earth in the most comprehensive tree of life ever created. “It allows people to find their favorite living things, be they golden moles or giant sequoias, and see how evolutionary history connects them together to create a giant tree of all life … Read more

Earth’s Tilted Magnetic Field 41,000 Years Ago Pushed The Auroras to Unexpected Places

If you want to be dazzled by a spectacular northern lights display, your best bet is to skywatch near the North Pole. But that wasn’t the case 41,000 years ago, when a disruption of Earth’s magnetic field sent auroras wandering toward the equator.   During this geomagnetic disturbance, known as the Laschamp event or the Laschamp excursion, … Read more

How a Geological Secret Passageway Under Panama Moves Rocks Thousands of Miles Away

A geological secret passage beneath Panama may explain why rocks from Earth’s mantle are found more than 1,000 miles (1,609 kilometers) from where they originated.  This opening, located some 62 miles below Earth’s surface, may allow a flow of mantle materials to travel all the way from beneath the Galápagos Islands to beneath Panama.    … Read more

What makes Earth unique? | Space

To date, astronomers have discovered nearly 5,000 exoplanets, or planets beyond our solar system. But many people still have a soft spot for one particular planet, Earth. That might be biased, but still: Given what scientists have learned about exoplanets so far, a combination of several different factors seems to make Earth unique, no many … Read more

Venus: Early impacts on the planet may have made it far hotter than Earth

Collisions with high-speed space rocks in Venus’s early history could have melted most of the planet’s mantle and driven any water into the atmosphere Space 17 December 2021 By Jonathan O’Callaghan Artist’s rendering of an early, large collision on Venus Southwest Research Institute/Simone Marchi High-speed impacts on Venus early in its history could help explain … Read more

Organic Molecules Have Been Confirmed in The Jezero Crater on Mars

It hasn’t even been on Mars a full year, and NASA’s Perseverance rover is making excellent surprise discoveries. Amid a number of findings announced this week at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, scientists have revealed that the Jezero Crater formed from molten volcanic magma – and that organic molecules have been discovered in rocks … Read more

The Longest Full Moon of 2021 Is About to Occur. Here’s How to Watch

December’s cold moon, the longest full moon of the year, will debut this Saturday night (December 18), making it the last full moon before the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere.   To catch the cold moon at its fullest, look up at 11:36 pm EST (0432 UTC on December 19). If you miss that moment, you’ll … Read more

It’s Not Actually Size That Determines How Deadly a Meteor Is

We have a lot to thank meteorites for. Had they not instigated several mass extinction events, including wiping out non-avian dinosaurs, we probably wouldn’t be here today. But some things still don’t add up about the massive scale of decimation they can cause.   “For decades scientists have puzzled over why some meteorites cause mass … Read more

Gigantic Eruption From ‘Dragon’ Star Is a Dire Warning About The Sun

In the search for “potentially-habitable” extrasolar planets, one of the main things scientists look at is stellar activity. Whereas stars like our own, a G-type (G2V) yellow dwarf, are considered stable over time, other classes are variable and prone to flare-ups – particularly M-type red dwarf stars.   Even if a star has multiple planets … Read more

Is our solar system a cosmic oddity? Evidence from exoplanets says yes

When we started finding planetary systems around other stars we thought many of them would be like ours. We’ve now found hundreds – and it’s so far, so wrong Space 1 December 2021 By Stuart Clark Duc LOng Once upon a time, there was a solar system. In it lived four small rocky planets called … Read more