rings

This Stupendous Crater on Mars Looks Eerily Like a Tree Stump

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You might be forgiven for thinking the above picture is the stump of a tree. Shift your perspective a little, however, and the truth becomes clear: What you’re looking at is much bigger than any tree – a concave depression on the surface of Mars, gouged out by a massive impact.   The rings radiating … Read more

The sun used to have rings like Saturn

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Before Earth and the other planets in our solar system existed, the sun may have been surrounded by giant rings of dust similar to Saturn’s, according to a new study.  Those rings of dust may have prevented Earth from growing into a “super-Earth” — a type of planet that is about twice the size of … Read more

The Sun Used to Have Saturn-Like Rings That Stopped Earth From Being a ‘Super-Earth’

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Before Earth and the other planets in our Solar System existed, the Sun may have been surrounded by giant rings of dust similar to Saturn’s, according to a new study.   Those rings of dust may have prevented Earth from growing into a “super-Earth” – a type of planet that is about twice the size of Earth and … Read more

Signs of Pinochet’s coup spotted in Chilean tree rings | Science

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On a summer day several years ago, Fabrice Lambert, a climatologist at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, met one of his colleagues in Quinta Normal, a 35-hectare public park in central Santiago. The researchers weren’t there for a picnic. They carried with them a drill-tipped tool known as an increment borer and a package … Read more

‘False’ tree rings could provide a new record of long-ago hurricanes | Science

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A tree’s annual growth rings reveal how it has flourished—or floundered—over time, with the size of the rings indicating years of health or hardship. But sometimes nature throws a wrench into the works, and a tree will form more than one growth ring in a year. Now, such “false rings,” found in trees along the … Read more