Earth’s geomagnetic armor has a crack and is growing. A weak point in our planet’s magnetic field, located over the southern Atlantic Ocean, has grown in size over the past two centuries …
Read More »China’s Mars probe just sent haunting photos of the red planet
China’s Mars probe, Tianwen-1, has been hovering around Mars in a parking orbit for nearly two full months, preparing for its landing in May. But it’s not just about sitting there in …
Read More »This stunning animation shows why Saturn’s rings are like a ‘mini solar system’
If star-jumping aliens ever visited our solar system, Saturn is probably the planet they would remember. The seven giant rings that surround its equator make Saturn the most distinct planet orbiting the …
Read More »An exploding star 65 light-years away from Earth could have caused a mass extinction
Life was trying, but it wasn’t working. As the late Devonian period progressed, more and more living things went extinct, culminating in one of the largest mass extinction events our planet has …
Read More »For the first time, scientists have detected X-rays coming out of Uranus
Each planet in the Solar System has its own idiosyncrasies, but Uranus is truly one of a kind. Not only is it tilted sideways so its axis of rotation is practically parallel …
Read More »Echoes from a comet that crashed in 1994 have revealed new data about Jupiter
It collided with Jupiter in 1994, but Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 apparently still has things to teach us about the largest planet in the Solar System. A new analysis of the impact traces …
Read More »Having lost its original atmosphere, this strange planet is now growing a new one
Artist’s rendering of the exoplanet GJ 1132 b,Picture: NASA / ESA / R. Injured (IPAC / Caltech) Who says you can’t lose your atmosphere with a nearby red dwarf? and then grow …
Read More »New model of ancient astronomical device reveals ‘creation of genius’
Digital recreation of the Antikythera mechanism. Picture: UCL By building a digital model of the Antikythera mechanism, scientists may have finally exposed a key function of the ancient device, revealing a design …
Read More »This is a fragment of a lost protoplanet and is officially older than Earth
A chunk of meteorite found in the sands of the Algerian desert could be a chunk of a baby planet that never made it. According to an in-depth analysis of the rock’s …
Read More »Humans now control most of all freshwater fluctuations on Earth’s surface
There has been a regime change on an almost unimaginable scale in the natural world, reflecting humanity’s vast and growing dominance over one of our planet’s most vital resources: fresh water. In …
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