Of all known planets, Earth is as friendly to life as any planet could possibly be — or is it? If Jupiter’s orbit changes, a new study shows Earth could […]
Earth
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Press Release, Venus
Hot Earth Or Young Venus? A Nearby Transiting Rocky Planet Mystery
Venus and Earth provide an astonishingly different view of the evolution of a rocky planet, raising the question of why these two rocky worlds evolved so differently. The recently discovered […]
Posted inBiogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Extinction events, Impact events, Press Release
Study Finds Evidence That Giant Meteorite Impacts Created The Continents
New Curtin research has provided the strongest evidence yet that Earth’s continents were formed by giant meteorite impacts that were particularly prevalent during the first billion years or so of […]
Posted inBiosignatures & Paleobiology, Mars, Press Release
URI Professors Win NASA-EPSCoR Grant To Study Methane Emissions From Rocks Common To Earth, Mars
Image: From left, Soni Pradhanang and Dawn Cardace, associate professors of geosciences, and Serena Moseman-Valtierra, an associate professor of biological sciences. Over the next three years, three University of Rhode […]
Posted inPress Release, TRAPPIST-1
Greater Climate Sensitivity And Variability On TRAPPIST-1e Than Earth
The atmospheres of rocky exoplanets are close to being characterized by astronomical observations, in part due to the commissioning of the James Webb Space Telescope. These observations compel us to […]
Posted inAstrogeology
How Did Earth Avoid A Mars-like Fate? Ancient Rocks Hold Clues
Approximately 1,800 miles beneath our feet, swirling liquid iron in the Earth’s outer core generates our planet’s protective magnetic field. This magnetic field is invisible but is vital for life […]
Posted inMars
Reduced Variations In Earth's And Mars' Orbital Inclination And Earth's Obliquity From 58 To 48 Myr Ago Due To Solar System Chaos
The dynamical evolution of the solar system is chaotic with a Lyapunov time of only ∼5 Myr for the inner planets. Due to the chaos it is fundamentally impossible to […]
Posted inAstrochemistry, Astrogeology, Press Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
Space Dust Analysis Could Solve The Mystery Of The Origins Of Earth's Water
An international team of scientists may have solved a key mystery about the origins of the Earth’s water, after uncovering persuasive new evidence pointing to an unlikely culprit — the […]
Posted inAtmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Extinction events, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
Slowdown In Earth's Rotation Could Have Affected The Oxygen Content Of Its Atmosphere
Virtually all oxygen on Earth was and is produced by photosynthesis, which was invented by tiny organisms, the cyanobacteria, when our planet was still a rather uninhabitable place.
Posted inHabitable Zones
Rise Of Oxygen On Earth: Initial Estimates Off By 100 Million Years
New research shows the permanent rise of oxygen in our atmosphere, which set the stage for life as we know it, happened 100 million years later than previously thought. A […]