Earth Archives

Schematic diagram of the domain (not to scale). The red line represents the outer boundary of the core; the blue line is the outer boundary of the BMO. (a) 𝑥–𝑧 (meridional) plane. The 𝑧 axis is Earth’s rotation axis and normal to the orbital plane. (b) 𝑥–𝑦 (orbital and equatorial) plane. The blue BMO ellipse always has its long axis aligned with the Moon, but the long axis of the red CMB ellipse can have a non-zero phase lag 𝛥𝜙 relative to the Moon. Throughout the main text, we assume that the solid mantle is static, in which case the BMO outer boundary is undeformed; we consider its deformation in appendix D. -- astro-ph.EP

Astrogeology, Lava / magma ocean / Volcanic Worlds, Moon, Origin & Evolution of Life, Status Report

Resonant Lunar Tides Of Earth’s Core And Basal Magma Ocean

by Keith CowingJune 16, 2026June 16, 2026

Earth’s magnetic field is generated by fluid motion in the liquid-metal core and has been active for billions of year.

Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Desert Worlds, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Mars, Status Report

Coupling Dynamical Accretion And Chemical Differentiation: A Unified Framework For Earth-Mars Diversity

by Keith CowingJune 15, 2026June 15, 2026

The distinct physical and geochemical differences between Earth and Mars provide fundamental constraints on terrestrial planet formation, yet a self-consistent framework linking dynamical and chemical aspects remains elusive.

Manganese oxides, thought to form almost exclusively through reactions between Mn2+ and O2, catalyze oxidative transformations among redox-sensitive metals. -- PNAS

Analog Studies, Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Mars, Status Report

Anoxic Photo-oxidation Of Mn(II)-bearing Carbonates On Mars And Early Earth

by Keith CowingJune 14, 2026June 14, 2026

Manganese oxides, thought to form almost exclusively through reactions between Mn2+ and O2, catalyze oxidative transformations among redox-sensitive metals. Thus, the occurrence of Mn oxides, either observed or inferred from […]

Opposite DSSR changes between mid-latitudes and polar regions.

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Habitable Zones, Press Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

A Warmer World May Redraw Earth’s Sunlight Map

by Keith CowingJune 10, 2026June 10, 2026

Sunlight follows a rhythm set by Earth’s orbit and tilt: long summer days, dark winters, and a familiar seasonal cycle from low to high latitudes.

Measured effective height of Earth’s atmosphere over the SPIRou wavelength range. The surface area, S , is derived from astrometry.

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

Earth As A Transiting Exoplanet

by Keith CowingJune 9, 2026June 10, 2026

Context. Detecting and characterizing the atmosphere of rocky planets in the habitable zone is a key objective of exoplanet research in the era of JWST and the upcoming E-ELT. Spectroscopy […]

Southwest Research Institute scientists modeled the early impact history of Earth, seeking insight into potential origins of life. Based on the models, a 6-mile (10-kilometer) asteroid striking the early Earth at 9 miles per second (15 km/second) creates a crater with impact-generated permeability (left) and heat profiles (right) that could create hydrothermal conditions capable of supporting the evolution of life. -- SWRI

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Impact events, Origin & Evolution of Life, Panspermia, Press Release

Impact History Of Early Earth Created Conditions Conducive To Life

by Keith CowingJune 8, 2026June 8, 2026

Southwest Research Institute scientists modeled the early impact history of Earth, seeking insight into potential origins of life. These models show that asteroid impacts on the early Earth plowed up […]

An artist's impression of a disk of gas and dust formed during the birth of the sun. Credit: NASA/FUSE/Lynette Cook

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Comets and Asteroids, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Mars, Mercury, Meteorites & Asteroids, Press Release, Venus

New Experiments And Modeling On Iron Meteorites Provide Insight Into Young Solar System And Earth’s Building Blocks

by Keith CowingJune 4, 2026June 4, 2026

Habitable planets require life-essential elements, like nitrogen and phosphorus. Understanding how those elements ended up in a planetary body can give insight into the formation of the solar system and […]

This plot shows currently known exoplanets, with different categories highlighted. Roman will help fill in the bottom-right of the plot by finding small worlds in large orbits. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

Astrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gas Giants, Ice Giant, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release

NASA’s Roman Mission Preps to Unveil New Populations of Faraway Worlds

by Keith CowingMay 29, 2026May 29, 2026

NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is poised to make a major leap in the hunt for worlds outside our solar system, known as exoplanets. Scientists expect the mission to […]

Semi-major axis versus planetary mass diagram for a population of transiting exoplanets. Stars are symbols for the planets observed in a ground-based atmospheric escape campaign. Planets above the red (orange) curve cannot have lost more than 50% (10%) of their initial mass M0 to photoevaporation. For more details, see Vissapragada et al. (2022). -- astro-ph.SR

Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mars, Status Report

The Role Of The Hubble Space Telescope In Advancing Our Understanding Of Atmospheric Escape In Exoplanets

by Keith CowingMay 28, 2026May 28, 2026

An important evolutionary pathway for planetary atmospheres is escape to space, which has been studied on Earth and Mars for several decades and more recently in exoplanets.

ExoCAM simulations of Earth from the present up to 2.0 Gyr in the future, assuming CO2 remains fixed at 400 ppm. The top row shows surface temperature, the middle row shows precipitation minus evaporation, and the bottom row shows the habitability metric developed by Woodward et al. (2025) (Eqs. (D1) and (D2)). All quantities are 20-year averages after the model has reached a steady-state. Increases in temperature due to a brightening sun cause an increase in habitability up to 1.5 Gyr due to the greening of the poles, but habitability decreases significantly by 2.0 Gyr as Earth becomes too hot for complex vegetative life. This corresponds to a weak temperature dependence of weathering, in which Earth’s CO2 levels do not change even as the climate warms (c.f., Graham et al., 2024). -- astro-ph.EP

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Desert Worlds, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Space Agriculture, Status Report, Terraforming & Geoengineering, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Maximum Lifetime Of The Vegetative Biosphere

by Keith CowingMay 23, 2026May 23, 2026

We use a three-dimensional model to calculate steady-state climates at various intervals in Earth’s future, across a parameter space of increasing insolation and decreasing CO2 mixing ratio.