SKA sites in Australia and South Africa at night. 1 credit Construction of the world’s largest radio astronomy facility, the Square Kilometer Array Observatory (SKAO), began on December 4. The observatory is a global project that has been going on for 30 years. With two enormous telescopes, one (low frequency) in Australia and the other …
Credit: Kirtland Air Force Base New research, based on two decades of data, shows that in the ten years since its onset in 2000, the Southwestern North America (SWNA) megadrought caused a 30 % of gravity wave activity in Earth’s upper atmosphere. More than 30 years ago, Chester Gardner of the Department of Electrical and …
The amount of oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere makes it a habitable planet. Twenty-one percent of the atmosphere is made up of this life-giving element. But in the distant past – as far back as the Neoarchean era 2.8 to 2.5 billion years ago – this oxygen was almost absent. So how did the Earth’s atmosphere …
Where does Earth’s oxygen come from? A new study hints at an unexpected source Read More »
The amount of oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere makes it a habitable planet. Twenty-one percent of the atmosphere is made up of this life-giving element. But in the distant past – as early as the Neoarchean era 2.8-2.5 billion years ago – this oxygen was almost absent. So how did the Earth’s atmosphere get oxygenated? Our …
Earth’s oxygen comes from a surprisingly deep and warm source, study finds Read More »
2750-2670 million year old granitoid rocks collected from the largest preserved Archean continent could help reveal the origin of Earth’s oxygen. Credit: Dylan McKevitt, author provided The amount of oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere makes it a habitable planet. Twenty-one percent of the atmosphere is made up of this life-giving element. But in the distant past …
Where does Earth’s oxygen come from? A new study hints at an unexpected source Read More »
Agami heron (Agamia agami). Credit: Joe Tobias Bird species with extreme or uncommon combinations of traits face the highest risk of extinction, a new study finds. The results are published in the journal Functional ecology. A new study by researchers at Imperial College London reveals that the planet’s most unique birds are also the most …
Rising levels of carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere could exacerbate efforts to clean our increasingly cluttered shell of orbiting space debris. Greenhouse gas has contributed significantly to the contraction of the upper atmosphere, according to two new studies. This contraction has been assumed for decades; now, for the first time, this has actually been observed. …
Relentless carbon is shrinking Earth’s upper atmosphere, scientists warn Read More »
On July 31, 2013, a constellation of US defense satellites saw a streak of light over South Australia as a boulder from outer space streaked through Earth’s atmosphere before crashing into the ground . The impact created an explosion equivalent to approximately 220 tonnes of TNT. More than 1,500km away in Tasmania, the bang was …
How satellites, radars and drones track meteorites and help defend Earth’s asteroids Read More »
The height of the Ediacaran Period, about 550 million years ago, was a boom time for life in Earth’s oceans. The feather-like petalamides sucked nutrients from the water, looking like slugs Kimberella were grazing on microbial mats, and the ancestors of jellyfish were just starting to make waves. But 80% of life on Earth has …
Scientists Just Discovered a Sixth Mass Extinction Hidden in Earth’s Ancient Past Read More »
Searching for planets and studying their stars, I have had the privilege of using some of the largest telescopes in the world. However, our team recently turned to an even larger system to study the cosmos: Earth’s forests. We’ve analyzed radioactive signatures left in tree rings around the world to study the mysterious “radiation storms” …
