Planet Earth, features and articles | Educational Science

Jun 30, 2021

Perfectly preserved 310-million-year-old fossilized brain found

Researchers have uncovered a never-before-seen fossilized brain from a 310 million-year-old horseshoe crab, revealing some surprises about the evolution of these wannabe crustaceans, according to a new study. The fossilized brain, which belongs to the extinct species Euproops danae, was discovered at Mazon Creek in Illinois, where the conditions were...

May 31, 2021

Climate 'tipping points' could push us past the point-of-no-return after less than 2 degrees of warming

As climate change continues to heat the planet, ice sheets and ocean currents could destabilize each other, leading to a climate domino effect impacting 40% of the world’s population, according to new research. And these effects could be seen at way lower temperatures than previously thought. Scientists ran 3 million...

May 31, 2021

Earth has a 'pulse' of 27.5 million years

Most major geological events in Earth's recent history have clustered in 27.5-million-year intervals — a pattern that scientists are now calling the pulse of the Earth, according to a new study. Over the past 260 million years, dozens of major geological events, from sea level changes to volcanic eruptions, seem...

May 31, 2021

A dangerous 'Omega block' is trapping scorching hot air over the US and Canada

The Northwestern United States and Pacific Canada are in the grips of a heat wave that the National Weather Service called historic and dangerous in a bulletin on Sunday (June 27). A weather anomaly called a heat dome is partially to blame. In the last few days, multiple cities across...

Mar 31, 2021

5,200 tons of extraterrestrial dust fall on Earth each year

Every year, 5,200 tons of extraterrestrial dust fall to Earth. This gentle rain of bits of comets and asteroids far outweighs larger meteorites that hit the planet, according to research to be published April 15 in the journal Earth & Planetary Science Letters. Only about 10 tons (9 metric tons)...

Feb 28, 2021

Top-secret Cold War military project found perfectly preserved fossil plants under Greenland ice

Frozen soil that was collected in Greenland during the Cold War by a secret military operation hid another secret: buried fossils that could be a million years old. Recent analysis revealed plants that were so well-preserved they look like they died yesterday, researchers said. U.S. Army scientists dug up the...

Feb 28, 2021

Spring returns with a not-so-equal vernal equinox of 2021

Spring will officially arrive on Saturday morning (March 20) with the occurrence of the vernal equinox. That occurs when the sun will be positioned directly over the Earth's equator at 09:37 Universal Time; 5:37 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time or 2:37 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time. At that particular moment, the sun...

Jan 31, 2021

Diamonds need an electric zap to crystallize deep inside Earth

Before diamonds can begin growing deep underground in Earth's mantle, they need a little zap from an electric field, a new study finds. In lab-based experiments, scientists mimicked conditions in the mantle — the layer just beneath Earth's crust — and found that diamonds grew only when exposed to an...

Jan 31, 2021

Bermuda's hurricanes are twice as strong as they were six decades ago

Hurricanes are blasting Bermuda with wind speeds that have more than doubled in strength over the last 66 years, due to rising ocean temperatures in the region as a result of climate change, according to a new study. Within a 62-mile (100 kilometers) radius of Bermuda, the average maximum wind...

Jan 31, 2021

Vampire squid fossil 'lost' during the Hungarian Revolution rediscovered

Vampire squid have been lurking in the dark corners of the ocean for 30 million years, a new analysis of a long-lost fossil finds. Modern-day vampire squid (Vampyroteuthis infernalis) can thrive in deep, oxygen-poor ocean water, unlike many other squid species that require shallower habitat along continental shelves. Few fossil...

Nov 30, 2022

Which is the largest continent? The smallest?

Hundreds of millions of years ago, a supercontinent called Pangaea formed. For about 125 million years, it contained almost all of the dry land on Earth. Since then, chunks of Pangaea have drifted apart and recombined in new ways. So which is the largest continent today? And what about the...

Nov 30, 2022

25 breathtaking images of the northern lights

When the nights grow longer and the days grow cooler, the skies in the most northern and southern latitudes may light up in green and blue. These auroras, also known as the northern lights, occur when charged particles streaming from the sun slam into our atmosphere and interact with nitrogen...

Nov 30, 2022

10 stunning shots of Earth from space in 2022

Earth-orbiting satellites and astronauts on board the International Space Station (ISS) have provided us with a whole new perspective of our planet in recent decades, and 2022 has been no different. From bizarre blue blobs and a silver swirling sea to undersea volcanoes and wandering icebergs, here are some of...

Aug 31, 2022

Why doesn’t the autumnal equinox fall on the same day each year?

Autumn is right around the corner for everyone in the Northern Hemisphere, while those in the Southern Hemisphere are gearing up for warmer spring weather. Depending on the part of the world in which you live, the season will change on either Sept. 22 or 23. That's because the equinox...

Jul 31, 2022

Walk with dinosaurs in this puzzle-packed edition of Future Genius, now available on Amazon

Dinosaurs are roaming free in a new special edition of Future Genius dedicated to the largest reptiles to ever roam the Earth. From the makers of How It Works magazine, Future Genius is a magazine that's bursting with activities to encourage and maintain children's inquisitive minds. In this special edition,...