Search results for Terrestrial Planets

Planetary Sciences Dec 10, 2025

How Mars impacts Earth's climate

Earth's climate has swung between ice ages and warmer periods for millions of years, driven by subtle changes in our planet's orbit and axial tilt. These variations, known as Milankovitch cycles, occur because Earth doesn't ...

Astrobiology Dec 4, 2025

Ten versions of Earth's future can help us hunt for technosignatures

Searching for technosignatures—signs of technology on a planet that we can see from afar—remains a difficult task. There are so many different factors to consider, and we only have the technological capabilities to detect ...

Astronomy Dec 1, 2025

What time is it on Mars? Physicists have the answer.

Ask someone on Earth for the time and they can give you an exact answer, thanks to our planet's intricate timekeeping system, built with atomic clocks, GPS satellites and high-speed telecommunications networks.

Astrobiology Nov 29, 2025

Why being in the 'right place' isn't enough for life

A planet's habitability is determined by a confluence of many factors. So far, our explorations of potentially habitable worlds beyond our solar system have focused exclusively on their position in the "Goldilocks Zone" of ...

Environment Nov 27, 2025

Plastic pollution is worsened by warming climate and must be stemmed, researchers warn

Climate change conditions turn plastics into more mobile, persistent, and hazardous pollutants. This is done by speeding up plastic breakdown into microplastics—microscopic fragments of plastic—spreading them considerable ...

Astrobiology Nov 26, 2025

Meteorite crater hosts methane-making microbes—a clue to life on Mars?

Scientists have discovered living microbes producing methane in the fractured rocks deep inside Sweden's Siljan impact crater, offering insights into Earth's earliest life and the search for life beyond our planet.

Planetary Sciences Nov 24, 2025

Tectonic regimes of terrestrial planets could explain Earth and Venus's divergence

An international team has made a significant breakthrough in understanding the tectonic evolution of terrestrial planets. Using advanced numerical models, the team systematically classified for the first time six distinct ...

Astrobiology Nov 13, 2025

The rust that could reveal alien life

Iron rusts. On Earth, this common chemical reaction often signals the presence of something far more interesting than just corroding metal—for example, living microorganisms that make their living by manipulating iron atoms. ...

Environment Nov 11, 2025

Five key issues at the UN climate summit in Brazil—and why they matter to you and the planet

The world's most important climate summit—known this year as COP30—has begun in the Amazonian port city of Belém, Brazil. It promises to be contentious: key countries haven't submitted new climate plans, and negotiations ...

Planetary Sciences Nov 10, 2025

Habitable zone planets around red dwarfs aren't likely to host exomoons, simulations suggest

There are no confirmed exomoons, moons orbiting distant exoplanets in other solar systems. There are a few candidates, but none have passed the threshold and been accepted as confirmed. But they must exist. Moons are common ...

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