Petrology is a branch of geoscience focused on the origin, composition, texture, and evolution of rocks within the Earth and other planetary bodies. It integrates mineralogy, geochemistry, and thermodynamics to interpret phase relations, melting and crystallization processes, and metamorphic reactions under varying pressure–temperature–fluid conditions. Petrologists distinguish igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary petrology, using tools such as petrographic microscopy, electron microprobe analysis, isotopic and elemental geochemistry, and experimental petrology to reconstruct magmatic differentiation, crust–mantle interactions, metamorphic facies, and basin evolution, thereby constraining geodynamic processes and the physico-chemical state of the lithosphere and mantle.
Beneath forests, grasslands and wetlands lies a hidden underground network of fungi known as mycorrhizal networks, sometimes nicknamed the "wood-wide web." These fungi live in partnership with plant roots, helping plants ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 6, 2026
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How do you teach someone to look at the moon? Not glance at it, the way we all have on a clear night, but truly read it, the way a geologist reads a hillside. That was the challenge NASA set itself before Artemis II, because ...
Space Exploration
Jun 26, 2026
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An international team of scientists has identified a completely new type of rock from the red planet and, for the first time, discovered the mineral garnet in a Martian sample. The breakthrough offers a rare glimpse into ...
Planetary Sciences
Jun 17, 2026
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New findings from NASA's Perseverance rover have revealed evidence of wave-formed beaches and rocks altered by subsurface water in a Martian crater that once held a vast lake—considerably expanding the timeline for potential ...
Astrobiology
Jan 27, 2026
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240
An analysis of feldspar crystals within the oldest magmatic rocks in Australia has provided a unique insight into Earth's ancient mantle and continents, and the early beginnings of the moon.
Planetary Sciences
Nov 3, 2025
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When astronauts returned from NASA's final Apollo moon mission in 1972, some of the samples they collected were sealed and carefully stored away in the hope that future researchers using advanced equipment might analyze them ...
Planetary Sciences
Oct 6, 2025
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103
In 2024, NASA's Mars rover Perseverance collected an unusual rock sample. The rock, named Sapphire Canyon, features white, leopardlike spots with black borders within a red mudstone and might hold clues about sources of organic ...
Space Exploration
Aug 12, 2025
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On June 3, NASA's Perseverance Mars rover ground down a portion of a rock surface, blew away the resulting debris, and then went to work studying its pristine interior with a suite of instruments designed to determine its ...
Planetary Sciences
Jun 25, 2025
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Scientists with NASA's Perseverance rover are exploring what they consider a veritable Martian cornucopia full of intriguing rocky outcrops on the rim of Jezero Crater. Studying rocks, boulders, and outcrops helps scientists ...
Planetary Sciences
Apr 10, 2025
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A team of geologists at the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, the Institute of Space Sciences and the Shandong Institute of Geological Sciences, all in China, has found evidence in soil samples collected from the far ...
