Earth is the only life-supporting planet we know of, so it's tempting to use it as a standard in the search for life elsewhere. But the modern Earth can't serve as a basis for evaluating exoplanets and their potential to ...
Astrobiology
2 hours ago
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13
Planetary scientists at the University of Colorado Boulder have discovered how Venus, Earth's scalding and uninhabitable neighbor, became so dry.
Planetary Sciences
May 6, 2024
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With dancing ribbons of light visible in the sky, a team of researchers flew on a series of scenic and sometimes stormy flights into the cold unknown, trying to learn more about why one of the most frigid places on Earth ...
Earth Sciences
May 3, 2024
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17
Recent reports of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope finding signs of life on a distant planet understandably sparked excitement. A new study challenges this finding, but also outlines how the telescope might verify the presence ...
Astrobiology
May 2, 2024
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74
An unusual reduction in the strength of Earth's magnetic field between 591 and 565 million years ago coincided with a significant increase in the oxygen levels in the atmosphere and oceans, according to a paper published ...
Earth Sciences
May 2, 2024
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A team of paleoclimatologists with the U.S. Geological Survey, NASA Ames Research Park, has found that atmospheric rivers in the past have dumped far more rain on California than those that have occurred over the past two ...
Hurricanes are among the world's most destructive natural hazards. Their ability to cause damage is shaped by their environment; conditions like warm ocean waters, guiding winds, and atmospheric moisture can all dictate storm ...
Earth Sciences
May 2, 2024
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260
Two NASA pathfinding missions were recently deployed into low-Earth orbit, where they are demonstrating novel technologies for observing atmospheric gases, measuring freshwater, and even detecting signs of potential volcanic ...
Planetary Sciences
May 2, 2024
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16
A research team using the ChemCam instrument onboard NASA's Curiosity rover discovered higher-than-usual amounts of manganese in lakebed rocks within Gale Crater on Mars, which indicates that the sediments were formed in ...
Astrobiology
May 1, 2024
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4666
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is underestimating methane emissions from landfills, urban areas and U.S. states, according to a new study led by researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering ...
Environment
May 1, 2024
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45
An atmosphere (from Greek ατμός - atmos, 'vapor' + σφαίρα - sphaira, 'sphere') is a layer of gases that may surround a material body of sufficient mass, by the gravity of the body, and are retained for a longer duration if gravity is high and the atmosphere's temperature is low. Some planets consist mainly of various gases, but only their outer layer is their atmosphere (see gas giants).
The term stellar atmosphere describes the outer region of a star, and typically includes the portion starting from the opaque photosphere outwards. Relatively low-temperature stars may form compound molecules in their outer atmosphere. Earth's atmosphere, which contains oxygen used by most organisms for respiration and carbon dioxide used by plants, algae and cyanobacteria for photosynthesis, also protects living organisms from genetic damage by solar ultraviolet radiation. Its current composition is the product of billions of years of biochemical modification of the paleoatmosphere by living organisms.
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