Planet Earth, features and articles | Educational Science

Dec 31, 2019

Iran Plane Crash Wreckage Spotted from Space (Satellite Photos)

Sharp-eyed satellites have spotted debris from the Ukrainian airliner that went down in Iran early Wednesday morning (Jan. 8). The photos were snapped yesterday (Jan. 9) by the WorldView-1 and WorldView-2 satellites, which are operated by DigitalGlobe, a subsidiary of Colorado-based Maxar Technologies. Both of these spacecraft can capture imagery...

Dec 31, 2019

Extreme heat of Vesuvius eruption turned a man's brain to 'glass'

When Mount Vesuvius erupted in the year 79, the volcano unleashed an avalanche of gas and rock hot enough to boil blood, vaporize flesh and even transform bits of brain tissue into glass, according to a new study. Archaeologists rarely uncover human brains during their digs, and if they do,...

Dec 31, 2019

Bubbling carbon dioxide vent discovered on the seafloor off the Philippines

Diving hundreds of feet below the surface of the ocean off the coast of the Philippines, scientists came across a bubbling hotspot of carbon dioxide. And this newly discovered vent might help us predict how coral reefs will deal with climate change, according to a new study. Bayani Cardenas, a...

Nov 30, 2021

UN confirms hottest temperature ever recorded in the Arctic

The highest temperature ever recorded in the Arctic has been officially confirmed by the United Nations' World Meteorological Organization (WMO), sounding ''alarm bells'' about climate change. The temperature, a ''Mediterranean'' 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius) — which was recorded in the Siberian town of Verkhoyansk in June 2020 —...

Nov 30, 2021

'Wind' from Earth's middle layer blows through a secret passage beneath Panama

A geological secret passage beneath Panama may explain why rocks from Earth's mantle are found more than 1,000 miles (1,609 kilometers) from where they originated. This opening, located some 62 miles (100 km) below Earth's surface, may allow a flow of mantle materials to travel all the way from beneath...

Nov 30, 2021

Famed naturalist E.O. Wilson, 'Darwin's natural heir,' dies at 92

Famed naturalist Edward O. Wilson, or E.O. Wilson, has died at the age of 92. The biologist, author and teacher was the world's top authority on the study of ants and called Charles Darwin’s natural heir. Wilson died Dec. 26 in Burlington, Massachusetts, according to a statement released by the...

Nov 30, 2021

England museum scientists discover more than 550 new species in 2021

A roly-poly monochromatic beetle. A fan-throated lizard. A rice rat that may be an example of island gigantism. And two crocodile-faced dinosaurs. These are some of the more than 550 species that researchers at the Natural History Museum in London discovered in 2021, despite COVID-19 restrictions. The museum's largest discoveries...

Oct 31, 2021

Human-size ammonites swam the Atlantic Ocean 80 million years ago

About 80 million years ago, human-size sea creatures with tentacle-like arms and coiled shells up to 6 feet (1.8 meters) wide glided through the Atlantic Ocean, a new study reveals. These creatures were the world's largest ammonites, a group of shelled cephalopods that went extinct roughly 66 million years ago....

Oct 31, 2021

Diamond hauled from deep inside Earth holds never-before-seen mineral

Within a diamond hauled from deep beneath Earth's surface, scientists have discovered the first example of a never-before-seen mineral. Named davemaoite after prominent geophysicist Ho-kwang (Dave) Mao, the mineral is the first example of a high-pressure calcium silicate perovskite (CaSiO3) found on Earth. Another form of CaSiO3, known as wollastonite,...

Sep 30, 2021

Climate change is making Earth dimmer

Earth is reflecting less light as its climate continues to change, new research suggests. A beautiful phenomenon connects climate and brightness: clouds. Clouds are a notoriously complicated piece of the climate puzzle — scientists struggle to model how clouds will respond to climate change and how those responses in turn...

Sep 30, 2021

Halloween northern lights from huge solar flare thrill skywatchers

A huge solar flare from the sun has spawned an eerie green glow over some parts of Earth in a Halloween northern lights show that has stargazers over the moon. A powerful X1 solar flare from the sun on Thursday (Oct. 28) unleashed a wave of charged particles that reached...

Aug 31, 2021

99 million-year-old spider mummies reveal moms cared for teeny spiderlings

Big-eyed spiders were likely guarding their egg sacs and possibly caring for already hatched spiderlings when they were trapped in sticky tree resin some 99 million years ago. That resin hardened, locking up those arachnid mamas in four chunks of amber recently mined in Myanmar, and now considered the oldest...

Jul 31, 2021

Dixie Fire becomes largest in California history

Burning through parched fuel like matchsticks, the Dixie Fire in Northern California has mushroomed in size this week to become the largest single wildfire in the state's history, according to news reports. The fire, which covers large parts of Butte and Plumas Counties, ignited around midnight on July 14 and...

Jul 31, 2021

July 2021 was officially the hottest month ever

July 2021 was officially the hottest month in recorded history, according to new data released Friday (Aug. 13) by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Last month, the combined land and ocean-surface temperature was 1.67 degrees Fahrenheit (0.93 degrees Celsius) higher than the 20th-century average, blowing past the previous...

Jun 30, 2021

Why do nuclear bombs form mushroom clouds?

When a bomb goes off, energy is shot out indiscriminately in all directions. So, instead of an expanding ball of fire, why do nuclear explosions result in mushroom clouds? Although the outburst of energy does initially form a sphere of hot air, that's only the beginning of the story, according...