The media often imply that the goal of the hunt for extrasolar planets is to find a rocky planet about the size of Earth orbiting a star like the sun at a distance that would allow liquid water to persist on its surface. ...
Astronomy
Jun 28, 2016
3
443
In the first billion years of Earth's history, the planet was bombarded by primordial asteroids, while a faint sun provided much less heat. A Southwest Research Institute-led team posits that this tumultuous beginning may ...
Astronomy
Jun 23, 2016
17
45
The idea that the young Earth had a thicker atmosphere turns out to be wrong. New research from the University of Washington uses bubbles trapped in 2.7 billion-year-old rocks to show that air at that time exerted at most ...
Earth Sciences
May 9, 2016
106
1163
In this new article for Geology, Gavin Kenny and colleagues reveal the likely origin of Earth's oldest crystals. New research into the origin of Earth's oldest crystals suggests that they probably formed in huge impact craters ...
Earth Sciences
May 5, 2016
0
20
Geochemists from Trinity College Dublin's School of Natural Sciences may have found a solution to a long-debated problem as to where - and how - life first formed on Earth.
Space Exploration
May 4, 2016
49
346
New research suggests that the very oldest pieces of rock on Earth—zircon crystals—are likely to have formed in the craters left by violent asteroid impacts that peppered our nascent planet, rather than via plate tectonics ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 28, 2016
8
1397
The crucibles that bore out early building blocks of life may have been, in many cases, modest puddles.
Biochemistry
Apr 25, 2016
25
498
Nearly four billion years ago, life arose on Earth. Life appeared because our planet had a rocky surface, liquid water, and a blanketing atmosphere. But life thrived thanks to another necessary ingredient: the presence of ...
Astronomy
Mar 16, 2016
87
1444
Chimney-like mineral structures on the seafloor could have helped create the RNA molecules that gave rise to life on Earth and hold promise to the emergence of life on distant planets.
Biochemistry
Mar 7, 2016
2
102
New research from a University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science-led science team provides new insight into one of the world's most diverse and extensive ecosystems of living microbes. The ...
Ecology
Feb 3, 2016
0
696
