A retired NASA spacecraft that once explored Earth’s hazardous radiation belts has fallen back to Earth years earlier than expected, after heightened solar activity gradually pulled it out of orbit. Space missions rarely end with a dramatic finale....

Continents slowly shed their deep roots during breakup, sending ancient mantle material beneath the oceans and creating enriched volcanic activity. Ocean volcanoes often erupt lavas with chemical signatures that seem too old and too enriched to come...

ocean chemistry. More fossil data and improved models will be needed to resolve these questions. What is clear is that Earth’s oceans have been active players in the planet’s long-term carbon story, not just passive reservoirs. The research was...

minerals. These space rocks are often suggested as possible water carriers to early Earth. If these objects delivered Earth’s oceans, the Moon should show signs of the same process. After all, Earth and Moon were hit by many of the same objects....

Explore the biological significance of the Voyager Golden Record, a message of life from Earth to the cosmos. Discover its contents, purpose, and implications for astrobiology and the search for extraterrestrial life. In 1977, NASA launched the Voyager...

Decades of hidden Earth signals reveal Beneath the Pacific basin, a vast pocket of liquid iron altered its flow direction near 2010, hinting that Earth’s inner dynamics can undergo rapid shifts. The planet’s outer core, a massive layer of swirling...

Earth’s poles are rising faster than previously expected as the planet’s solid surface and gravitational field evolve in separate, complex directions. The physical structure of our planet is in a state of measurable flux. New research highlights that...

Scientists propose a bold plan to protect Earth from the Sun’s deadly expansion billions of years in the future. In roughly a billion years the Sun will exhaust its nuclear fuel and swell into a red giant, a transformation that could strip Earth of its...

Geologists propose Venus once hosted massive oceans, challenging views of its ancient climate and habitability, hinting at past life potential. For many years Venus has been portrayed as a hostile world of crushing pressure, scorching temperatures and...

Scientists probe a puzzling shift in Earth’s molten core 2,200 km beneath the Pacific, where flow reversed then weakened, sparking new deep‑earth research. A team of geophysicists has identified a dramatic change in the flow of liquid iron beneath the...

New research using Earth observation data has revealed a significant shift in our understanding of how the planet’s center of mass moves each year. New analysis of long-term NASA observational data has yielded a refined understanding of how Earth’s...

Scientists have modeled four potential visions for Earth’s distant future, each promising to reshape our climate, oceans, and the survival of all life. While the map of the world appears fixed, the surface of the Earth is in a constant state of flux....

A new model published in Nature Geoscience predicts when Earth’s oxygen-rich atmosphere will eventually collapse, marking a turning point for life. Our planet’s hospitable, oxygen-rich atmosphere is a fleeting luxury in the grander timeline of the...

New study suggests a massive asteroid shattered 800 million years ago, unleashing a debris wave that swept through the inner Solar System. New calculations suggest that a catastrophic breakup of a parent body in the main asteroid belt around 800...

As megaconstellations flood low Earth orbit, a new “CRASH Clock” reveals how close we may be to a chain reaction of satellite collisions that could disrupt life on Earth. If you checked the weather today, used GPS to navigate, watched a live sports...

Satellites and old ship logs map the mysterious milky seas—vast glowing oceans that may signal a hidden environmental threat. Sailors have long spoken of a nocturnal ocean that turns a luminous cream, bright enough to read by, and stretches to the...

biodiversity and cutting oceanic photosynthesis roughly in half. These graphs show how the Chicxulub asteroid threw Earth’s oceans out of balance, changing their chemistry and disrupting the carbon cycle. Credit: PNAS Recovery was prolonged:...

As the latest iteration in the Sentinel-3 series, this spacecraft is tasked with the systematic observation of Earth’s oceans, landmasses, ice sheets, and the atmosphere. Sentinel-3C is engineered to provide long-term, consistent data on critical...

Scientists have discovered oxygen trapped deep within Earth’s magma, a finding that could explain the mysterious rise of early life on our planet. Geoscientists have long operated under the assumption that the oxygen content in Earth’s mantle is...

Scientists discover a massive water reservoir 700 km deep in Earth’s mantle, locked in rock and unlike any known ocean. At a depth of roughly 700 km beneath the planet’s crust, a massive slab of rock stores water bound within its mineral crystals under...