Astronomers have taken a step towards understanding how the Moon might have formed out of a giant collision between the early Earth and another massive object 4.5 billion years ago.
Space Exploration
Dec 3, 2020
10
568
Our planet is unique in the solar system. It's the only one with active plate tectonics, ocean basins, continents and, as far as we know, life. But Earth in its current form is 4.5 billion years in the making; it's starkly ...
Earth Sciences
Dec 3, 2020
1
7
On the night of January 16, 2018, a fireball meteor streaked across the sky over the Midwest and Ontario before landing on a frozen lake in Michigan. Scientists used weather radar to find where the pieces landed and meteorite ...
Space Exploration
Oct 27, 2020
0
1173
It is generally accepted that the inner region of the early solar system was subject to an intense period of meteoric bombardment referred to as the late heavy bombardment. However, researchers have found evidence that suggests ...
Space Exploration
Sep 16, 2020
26
304
Chemical reactions driven by the geological conditions on the early Earth might have led to the prebiotic evolution of self-replicating molecules. Scientists at Ludwig-Maximilians Universitaet (LMU) in Munich now report on ...
Biochemistry
Aug 7, 2020
1
397
The giant impacts that dominate late stages of planet formation have a wide range of consequences for young planets and their atmospheres, according to new research.
Astronomy
Jul 15, 2020
0
1216
Earth may have been far more oxygen-rich early in its history than previously thought, setting the stage for the evolution of complex life, according to new research by scientists at the University of Alberta and the University ...
Earth Sciences
May 12, 2020
2
3034
Three billion years ago, Earth was a very different place. The sun that shone on its oceans and continents was not as bright as it is today, and rather than the oxygen-rich atmosphere humans need to survive, methane played ...
Astronomy
May 4, 2020
1
145
An enduring question in geology is when Earth's tectonic plates began pushing and pulling in a process that helped the planet evolve and shaped its continents into the ones that exist today. Some researchers theorize it happened ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 22, 2020
4
3963
How the Earth got its moon is a long debated question. The giant impact theory – which states that the moon formed from the a collision between the early Earth and a rocky body called Theia—has become the front runner ...
Space Exploration
Mar 10, 2020
12
114
