How different are Jupiter‘s gaseous layers and Earth’s oceans? Perhaps not as much as you expect. Lia Siegelman, a physical oceanographer at the University of California, San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography, has been studying Jupiter through the lens of Earth’s oceans to determine what powers the gas giant’s raging cyclones. “Jupiter is basically an […]
Tag: Earths
Can Australia step up its rare earths game?
Likened to oil in the 21st century, rare earth metals have long been pitched as game-changing materials for the global energy landscape. Mined for their magnetic properties, the 17 metals are used in everything from mobile phones to electric vehicle engines and wind turbines, and are a mainstay of clean energy technologies. Despite their name, […]
Zero Debris Charter aims to boost international cooperation on cleaning up Earth’s space junk problem
Earth orbit is becoming increasingly polluted. NASA estimates that at least 500,000 pieces of debris 1 cm or greater circle our planet; ESA estimates more than 1 million. As the number of spacecraft we launch into orbit or beyond grows, so too does the amount of debris we leave in their wake. Uncontrolled debris is […]
Robotic Russian cargo ship leaves the ISS, burns up in Earth’s atmosphere (photo)
An uncrewed Russian cargo spacecraft came crashing back to Earth today (May 28) as planned. The Progress 86 freighter undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) today at 4:39 a.m. EDT (0839 GMT) and headed back down to Earth. Progress 86 gave up the ghost a few hours later, burning up as planned over the […]
Auroras could paint Earth’s skies again in early June. Here are the key nights to watch for.
If you want to glimpse the northern lights from below the Arctic Circle, be ready to drive to dark skies the first week of June. Earth’s most powerful geomagnetic storm in more than two decades happened between May 10 and May 12, painting the skies with colorful auroras as far south as Florida and Mexico […]
NASA PREFIRE mission set to launch to study Earth’s polar regions
Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more. NASA is set to launch the first of two research satellites to measure how much heat is lost to space from the Arctic and Antarctica. The shoebox-size satellite is expected to lift off Saturday aboard […]
Something strange is happening with Earth’s magnetic field tail
You may not know this, but Earth’s magnetic field has a tail. As the sun‘s solar wind buffets the planet, it leaves behind a sort of long shadow that trails out in our planet’s wake. Scientists call this magnetic tail, appropriately, the magnetotail. Typically, the magnetotail is strewn with magnetic storms. But for the past […]
NASA’s PREFIRE mission is ready to unlock the mysteries of Earth’s poles
NASA is preparing to launch its latest climate science mission, the Polar Radiant Energy in the Far-Infrared Experiment (PREFIRE), which aims to capture brand new data on how heat is lost to space from Earth’s polar regions. PREFIRE consists of a pair of cubesats that will launch separately into near-polar orbits. The first, “Ready, Aim, […]
Scientists are mapping Earth’s rivers from space before climate change devastates our planet
Our planet’s rivers are like our planet’s arteries. They’re woven across the globe in intricate networks, ferrying life-sustaining freshwater around the world. Rivers aren’t just our own lifelines, providing us with the drinking water we need to survive, but their freshwater reserves are also the primary lifelines of 10 percent of all known animals and […]
Where did Earth’s water come from? This ancient asteroid family may help us find out
A family of primitive asteroids is providing astronomers with a window into the past as they seek to unravel the history of these small space rocks believed to have once brought water to Earth. Life in the solar system can be dangerous, with lots of impacts having taken place over the course of history — […]
The summer of 2023 was Earth’s hottest in 2,000 years, scientists find
The 2015 Paris Agreement, meant to constrain global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, has already been breached, according to European scientists who found that last summer was Earth‘s hottest in the past 2,000 years across the Northern Hemisphere. More specifically, the new estimates, derived from tree ring records, show the summer of […]
A scorching, rocky planet twice Earth’s size has a thick atmosphere, scientists say
DALLAS (AP) — A thick atmosphere has been detected around a planet that’s twice as big as Earth in a nearby solar system, researchers reported Wednesday. The so-called super Earth — known as 55 Cancri e — is among the few rocky planets outside our solar system with a significant atmosphere, wrapped a blanket of […]