Earths

Birds Use Earth’s Magnetic Field For ‘Stop Signs’ When They Migrate

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Thanks to a combination of sensing the Earth’s magnetic field through vision and an in-built compass that allows them to orient themselves according to magnetic intensity, migratory birds don’t have much trouble finding their way.   Those biological gadgets, known as magnetoreception, allow birds to not only know which direction to head in on their first outbound migration but … Read more

Signs of an Unknown Solar ‘Tsunami’ Have Been Discovered Deep Inside Earth’s Ice

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Deep beneath the ice in Greenland and Antarctica, researchers have found signs of an enormous solar ‘tsunami‘ that once crashed against Earth’s atmosphere more than 9,000 years ago.   This ancient superstorm was triggered by a wave of hot plasma and magnetism from the Sun, and it is significantly larger than anything we have recorded … Read more

Bird navigation: Slope of Earth’s magnetic field may be ‘stop sign’ for migrating species

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Eurasian reed warblers migrate to sub-Saharan Africa each year – and they seem to use the slope of Earth’s magnetic field to judge when they have reached their European breeding grounds Life 27 January 2022 By Alex Wilkins A Eurasian reed warbler Shutterstock / Rafal Szozda Some birds rely on Earth’s magnetic field to navigate and … Read more

We May Finally Understand Why Clouds Are Different Between Earth’s Hemispheres

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You might think that clouds are clouds all over Earth, but that’s not quite so. If you’re in the Southern Hemisphere, the clouds there are different, more abundant, and more reflective than clouds found in the Northern Hemisphere, a fact scientists are well familiar with, but have not been able to fully explain.   Now, … Read more

Wild New Paper Suggests Earth’s Tectonic Activity Has an Unseen Source

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Earth is far from a solid mass of rock. The outer layer of our planet – known as the lithosphere – is made up of more than 20 tectonic plates; as these gargantuan slates glide about the face of the planet, we get the movement of continents, and interaction at the boundaries, not least of which is … Read more

Otherlands review: A fascinating journey through Earth’s history

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By Gege Li An artist’s impression of how Earth’s first multicellular animals looked on the sea floor Mark Garlick/Science Photo Library Book Otherlands: A world in the making Thomas Halliday OUR planet has existed for some 4.5 billion years In that time, it has undergone extraordinary changes, with landscapes and life forms that would seem … Read more

Tonga Volcano Eruption Created Puzzling Ripples in Earth’s Atmosphere

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Scientists are racing to understand a puzzling series of massive ripples in Earth’s atmosphere triggered by the eruption of the Tongan volcano at the weekend. Satellite data shows that the event — which some fear might have devastated the Pacific-island nation — provoked an unusual pattern of atmospheric gravity waves. Previous volcanic eruptions have not … Read more

Voyager 1: Earth’s farthest spacecraft

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Voyager 1 is the first spacecraft to reach interstellar space. It originally launched (along with its twin, Voyager 2) in 1977 to explore the outer planets in our solar system. However, it has remained operational long past expectations and continues to send information about its journeys back to Earth.  The spacecraft entered interstellar space in … Read more

Earth’s Insides Are Cooling Faster Than We Thought, And It Will Mess Things Up

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Earth formed 4.5 billion years or so ago. Ever since then, it’s been slowly cooling on the inside. While the surface and atmosphere temperatures fluctuate over the eons (and yes, those external temperatures are currently warming), the molten interior – the beating heart of our planet – has been cooling this entire time.   That’s … Read more