Earth and Planetary Science

Life on Earth began 260 million years after the planet’s early atmosphere witnessed two major spikes in oxygen concentration. Researchers say these atmospheric levels is the probable cause for the evolutionary silence dubbed the “boring billion.” Read on to find out more. 

Astronomers from Chalmers University of Technology and Onsala Space Observatory, Sweden, studied supermassive black holes to find out whether they were surrounded by a magnetic field. Supermassive black holes, often with masses billions of times that of the Sun, are located at the heart of almost all galaxies in the Universe. Read on to learn more about this.

Scientists have discovered an ancient tundra landscape under the Greenland Ice Sheet, preserved for 2.7 million years. This discovery provides strong evidence that the Greenland Ice Sheet has persisted much longer than previously known, enduring through many past periods of global warming and remaining stable. Read on to know more. 

NASA’s Kepler spacecraft has uncovered a solar system whose planets orbit at a steep angle to their star’s equator. Read on to know more. 

An international group of astronomers has made a significant discovery using NASA’s Keplar spacecraft. Three planets that are just a little bigger than Earth have been spotted orbiting an M-dwarf star known as EPIC 201367075 near the Sun. Find out more about these planets. 

John Kovac and his team created a sensation when they announced finding the evidence of primordial gravitational waves in March 2014, thus confirming the theory of inflation. However, this study has become embroiled in controversy ever since. Read on to find out more. 

Using NASA's Kepler Space Telescope, astronomers from the U.S. have discovered a planet that they believe is significantly similar to Earth. This planet that has been dubbed as Kepler-452b is in the habitable zone of the star it circles. Read on to learn more about this.

Researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Oregon State University, and the U.S. Coast Guard wanted to establish a standard for ambient noise in the Challenger Deep trough in the Mariana Trench, the deepest part of the Pacific Ocean. However, contrary to the expectation of finding a calm and silent atmosphere, the researchers discovered that the deepest part of the ocean was filled with noises, both natural and human made. Read more about their research here.

Could water have been one of the planet-forming materials in the Solar System? Ilsedore Cleeves, an astrochemist conducted a study wherein she created a model that replicates the conditions in the universe when the Sun was born to predict how much of water on Earth was formed before the Sun’s birth. Read on to find out more. 

Giant sand dunes make up the surface of Titan, Saturn’s moon, and these dunes made of hydrocarbon particles may have existed for thousands of years. According to Ryan Ewing, a geologist at Texas A&M University in College Station, it may take as long as 3,000 Saturn years for a single dune to change direction. Read on for more interesting insights.