A UK-Canadian team of scientists has discovered ancient pockets of water on Earth, which have been isolated deep underground for billions of years and contain abundant chemicals known to support life. Water filtering out of the floor of a deep Ontario mine has been trapped underground for more than a billion years. It bubbles [continue reading]
Water is perhaps the most important molecule in our Solar System. Figuring out where it came from and how it was distributed within and among the planets can help scientists understand how planets formed and evolved. New research from a team including Carnegie’s Erik Hauri demonstrates that water from the interiors of the Earth [continue reading]
NASA’s Van Allen Probes mission has discovered a previously unknown third radiation belt around Earth, revealing the existence of unexpected structures and processes within these hazardous regions of space. A graphic depicting the twin Van Allen Probes in orbit within Earth’s magnetic field. Image Credit: JHU/APL Previous observations of Earth’s Van Allen Radiation Belts have [continue reading]
The mantles of Earth and other rocky planets are rich in magnesium and oxygen. Due to its simplicity, the mineral magnesium oxide is a good model for studying the nature of planetary interiors. New work from a team led by Carnegie’s Stewart McWilliams studied how magnesium oxide behaves under the extreme conditions deep within [continue reading]
Northern night skies have recently been alive with light. Those shimmering curtains get their start about 93 million miles away, on the Sun. An image of an aurora borealis, and moonrise in the Brooks Range in northern Alaska at the Chandler Shelf in December 2008. Image Credit: guardian.co.uk/Rolf Hicker/Barcroft Media An aurora borealis (aurora australis [continue reading]
Microorganisms that crashed to Earth embedded in the fragments of distant planets might have been the sprouts of life on this one, according to new research presented at the European Planetary Sciences Congress (EPSC) on 25 September. The Sun is thought to have formed in a cluster of other stars around 4.5 billion years [continue reading]