New experiments show that the asteroids that slammed into Earth and the moon more than 4 billion years ago were vaporised into a mist of iron. The findings, published in Nature Geoscience, suggest that the iron mist thrown ...
Earth Sciences
Mar 3, 2015
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(Phys.org) —Massive terrestrial planets, called "super-Earths," are known to be common in our galaxy, the Milky Way. Now a Northwestern University astrophysicist and a University of Chicago geophysicist report the odds ...
Astronomy
Jan 7, 2014
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A tiny fraction of meteorites on earth contain strikingly beautiful, translucent, olive-green crystals embedded in an iron-nickel matrix. Called pallasites, these "space gems" have fascinated scientists since they were first ...
Space Exploration
Nov 15, 2012
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Among the oddities of the outer solar system are the middle-sized moons of Saturn, a half-dozen icy bodies dwarfed by Saturn's massive moon Titan. According to a new model for the origin of the Saturn system, these middle-sized ...
Space Exploration
Oct 17, 2012
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(Phys.org)—Exoplanet hunters estimate that there could be billions of super-Earths—planets with a mass of up to ten times that of Earth—orbiting stars in the Milky Way alone. But do super-Earths really deserve their ...
Astronomy
Sep 25, 2012
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The inner core of the Earth is simultaneously melting and freezing due to circulation of heat in the overlying rocky mantle, according to new research from the University of Leeds, UC San Diego and the Indian Institute of ...
Earth Sciences
May 18, 2011
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Sandwiched between the liquid iron outer core and the thin rocky crust we live on, the Earth's mantle is more than 1,800 miles thick, and comprises more than three-quarters of the planet's volume and nearly ...
Earth Sciences
Jun 11, 2010
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If tectonic plate collisions cause volcanic eruptions, as every fifth grader knows, why do some volcanoes erupt far from a plate boundary?
Earth Sciences
Jun 2, 2010
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When Planet Earth was just cooling down from its fiery creation, the sun was faint and young. So faint that it should not have been able to keep the oceans of earth from freezing. But fortunately for the creation of life, ...
Earth Sciences
Aug 18, 2009
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