Earth Archives

Satellite image of Sahara dust storm moving over the Atlantic Ocean. -- NASA

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Press Release

Sahara Dust Can Enhance Removal Of Methane

by Keith CowingJuly 26, 2023July 26, 2023

The study by Maarten van Herpen et al., entitled “Photocatalytic Chlorine Atom Production on Mineral Dust-Sea Spray Aerosols over North Atlantic,” was funded in part by the NGO Spark Climate […]

Median temperature (K) differences between high and low pCO2 scenarios and median wind speeds (m s−1) for each scenario for Earth-like (a, c) and TRAPPIST-1e (b, d) ExoCAM simulations at (a, b) upper and (c, d) near-surface levels. Black and green quivers represent the high and low pCO2 scenarios, respectively. Using the Wilcoxon Rank-Sum test, lime and magenta-filled contours for wind speed and temperature represent areas not statistically significant at the 5% level, respectively. -- The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Press Release, TRAPPIST-1

Greenhouse Gas Supplement Increases Warming And Alters Circulation Patterns On Earth and Earth-like Exoplanets

by Keith CowingJuly 13, 2023July 13, 2023

With the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the study of exoplanetary atmospheres and their potential habitability reached new heights. A team of researchers led by Dr. Assaf […]

This image, acquired on April 8, 2011, with the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instruments on NASA’s Terra satellite, shows Saharan dust over the Bay of Biscay. A phytoplankton bloom makes the water appear bright green and blue. Sediment is likely contributing to some of the color, especially in coastal areas. Credits: NASA Earth Observatory image by Wanmei Liang, using MODIS data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE and GIBS/Worldview.

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Desert Worlds, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Plant Biology, Press Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

How Desert Dust Nourishes The Growth Of Phytoplankton In Earth’s Oceans

by Keith CowingJuly 10, 2023August 23, 2025

For the past few decades, scientists have been observing natural ocean fertilization events — episodes when plumes of volcanic ash, glacial flour, wildfire soot, and desert dust blow out onto […]

Artist impression showing the exoplanet LP 890-9c’s potential evolution from a hot Earth to a desiccated Venus. Carl Sagan Institute/R. Payne

Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Press Release, TRAPPIST-1, Venus, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Exoplanet LP 890-9c May Reveal Secrets About The Edge Of Habitability

by Keith CowingJune 21, 2023June 21, 2023

How close can a rocky planet be to a star, and still sustain water and life? A recently discovered exoplanet may be key to solving that mystery.

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Icy Worlds, Status Report, Terraforming & Geoengineering, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Driving Action On The Climate Crisis Through Astronomers For Planet Earth And Beyond

by Keith CowingMay 21, 2023November 16, 2024

While an astronomer’s job is typically to look out from Earth, the seriousness of the climate crisis has meant a shift in many astronomers’ focus.

Artist's impression of how astronomical forces affect the Earth's motion, climate, and ice sheets. CREDIT NAOJ

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Extinction events, Press Release

Astronomical Forces Control Earth’s Ice Age Cycles

by Keith CowingMay 17, 2023May 17, 2023

A research team, composed of climatologists and an astronomer, have used an improved computer model to reproduce the cycle of ice ages (glacial periods) 1.6 to 1.2 million years ago.

Transmitted light micrograph of garnet-melt partitioning experiment. This experiment (experiment 22) contains a large fraction of silicate melt, garnet (grt), clinopyroxene (cpx), rutile (rt), and quartz (qtz). Garnet cores contain abundant mineral inclusions. Enlarged inset image shows the size of a garnet XANES spot (2 μm by 2 μm) for comparison. -- Science

Astrogeology, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Habitable Zones, Press Release

New Clues About The Rise Of Earth’s Continents

by Keith CowingMay 4, 2023May 4, 2023

Continents are part of what makes Earth uniquely habitable for life among the planets of the solar system, yet surprisingly little is understood about what gave rise to these huge […]

The sequence of events leading to formation of water, light elements in metal, and increases in oxygen fugacity for Earth’s progenitor embryos in this work. Stage 1 is the embryo where surface temperatures are too high to retain primary atmospheres of hydrogen. Stage 2 is the initial condition for our calculations in which the molten embryos accrete and retain primary atmospheres of H2. Metalsilicate differentiation may have already begun at this stage. Stage 3 is the result of chemical equilibration of the silicate and metal melts with the evolved atmospheres. Annotations show the changes in oxygen fugacity and metal density deficits. Reactions shown are simplifications of the full set, for illustration purposes. Two or more such embryos combine to form the final Earth. -- astro-ph.EP

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Origin & Evolution of Life, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Earth Was Shaped By Primordial Hydrogen Atmospheres

by Keith CowingApril 17, 2023April 17, 2023

Earth’s water, intrinsic oxidation state, and metal core density are fundamental chemical features of our planet. Studies of exoplanets provide a useful context for elucidating the source of these chemical […]

An illustration showing how some Earth’s signature features, such as its abundance of water and its overall oxidized state could potentially be attributable to interactions between the molecular hydrogen atmospheres and magma oceans on the planetary embryos that comprised Earth’s formative years. CREDIT Illustration by Edward Young/UCLA and Katherine Cain/Carnegie Institution for Science.

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Habitable Zones, Press Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

How Did Earth Get Its Water?

by Keith CowingApril 12, 2023April 12, 2023

Our planet’s water could have originated from interactions between the hydrogen-rich atmospheres and magma oceans of the planetary embryos that comprised Earth’s formative years, according to new work from Carnegie […]

Rochester researchers Wriju Chowdhury and Dustin Trail reveal information about early Earth using tiny zircon crystals, which are billions of years old and a fraction of a millimeter in size (scale bars are in micrometers, where 1 micrometer = 0.000001 meter). The researchers use an imaging technique called cathodoluminescence that fires electrons from a cathode at a sample. The holes in the crystals are from a laser that removed part of the grain to allow the researchers to acquire chemical information. (Smithsonian Institution photo)

Astrogeology, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Habitable Zones, Press Release

Was Plate Tectonics Occurring When Life First Formed On Earth?

by Keith CowingApril 4, 2023April 4, 2023

Earth is a dynamic and constantly changing planet. From the formation of mountains and oceans to the eruption of volcanoes, the surface of our planet is in a constant state […]