Massive double asteroid will cruise by Earth later this week
Most space rocks that pass nearby Earth are solo travelers making their way around the Sun and slipping past our planet as they do so. …
Earth
Plants are doing their best to save mankind, but they can’t do it alone
We humans are great at a number of things and very, very bad at several others. For example, we’re pretty terrible when it comes to …
Radioactive remnants of decades-old nuclear bomb tests have settled on the ocean floor
Nuclear weapons testing dates back to the mid 1940s and ramped up significantly starting in the early 1950s. Several countries, including the U.S., Soviet Union, …
NASA’s TESS exoplanet hunter found its first Earth-size planet, but you wouldn’t want to visit
NASA’s TESS exoplanet hunting telescope has been on the job for less than a year, but it’s already racking up some impressive discoveries. Following the …
Americans would be more comfortable in Africa than anywhere else on Earth
If you find yourself constantly tweaking your home’s thermostat in search of the perfect temperature, you might save some time by just moving to eastern …
Killing an asteroid might be a lot harder than anyone thought
We’ve all seen Armageddon, so it’s easy to imagine that Earth could potentially be saved from a killer asteroid by a ragtag group of scientists …
This space harpoon might finally be the answer to all the junk floating around Earth
NASA and other space agencies around the world have accomplished some seriously amazing things in space, but there’s been a big price to pay for …
New fossils might be the earliest moving organisms on Earth
If you go back far enough in the fossil record — past the cavemen, dinosaurs, and even the earliest creatures to crawl out of Earth’s …
Widespread insect die-off could devastate ecosystems worldwide
How can we best measure the largely negative impact mankind has had on the planet? Well, we can measure the increasingly dramatic global temperature spikes, …
Earth’s magnetic pole is shifting faster than scientists predicted
If there’s one thing big-budget Hollywood disaster films have taught us, it’s that the Earth’s poles are nothing to be messed with. But apocalyptic fiction …
A magnet bouncing on a trampoline is way more interesting than it sounds
Magnets. How do they work? The good folks over at the YouTube channel Magnetic Games know exactly how, and they do all kinds of neat …
The oldest Earth rock ever found was actually brought back from the Moon
NASA astronauts who visited the Moon during the Apollo 14 mission hauled back a whole bunch of material from its surface. At the time, they …
Collision between young Earth and Mars-sized planet might be why we’re all here today
Humans have tamed (or utterly destroyed) much of the planet in our brief time here, but there’s still plenty we don’t know about Earth’s history. …
NASA’s asteroid probe snaps incredible shot of Earth from 71 million miles away
Snapping images of distant worlds, galaxies, and stars is something that NASA is very good at, but it’s not often that the space agency has …
Humans are getting bigger, and that means more strain on the world’s food supply
Everyone knows that obesity is a major health crisis in the United States and many other countries, but humans aren’t just getting fatter, we’re also …
Earth is being orbited by a pair of wispy ‘dust moons,’ scientists say
In a new paper published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, scientists explain that they’ve confirmed the presence of two clouds of dust …
The Earth is wobbling more than it should, and humans are likely the cause
When looking at the Earth from afar it appears to be a perfect sphere, but that actually isn’t the case. Because Earth isn’t uniform on …
Scientists create most detailed map of Antarctica ever
Chances are you make it through most days without sparing a thought for Antarctica. At just over 5.4 million square miles, it’s a massive chunk …
A massive ancient volcano wiped out roughly 90 percent of all life on Earth just 250 million years ago
It might be hard to imagine today, but life on Earth hasn’t always had an go of things. The volcano that is thought to have …
This gorgeous NASA map shows Earth’s incredible aerosol clouds
When you step outside in the morning and take a nice deep breath you might feel refreshed and energized. Of course, if you’re in the …
Paleontologists discover fossil of ancient turtle species that never grew a shell
When it comes to animals with iconic features, the turtle is high on the list. Deer have horns, kangaroos have pouches, humans have existential dread, …
Study says Earth’s magnetic field has shifted rapidly in the past, and if it happens again it could be catastrophic
One of the big reasons that life thrives on Earth is that it’s protected from some of the more harsh phenomenon of space by something …
Scientists say the likelihood of ‘water world’ exoplanets is high, which is good news for aliens
If you hope to one day wake up to the news that scientists have discovered a planet with alien life, the scientists working with the …
Astronomers now have a formula for finding planets that are perfect for life
One of the biggest challenges for astronomers searching for habitable exoplanets is trying to match up newly-discovered worlds with the increasingly long list of criteria …
Scientists claim that Earth’s Moon may have once supported life
In the never-ending search for life beyond Earth, astronomers tend to look far, far away, but it seems our closest neighbor may have once been …
Surprise! There’s a quadrillion tons of diamonds lying beneath your feet
Finding a diamond on the ground would make anyone’s day. Depending on its quality, you might be able to sell it for a nice little …
Brilliant activists turned river trash into a floating park, and it’s awesome
We’ve already established that mankind has a big, big problem cleaning up after itself, but there’s at least a small percentage of humans who are …
Astronomers spot a trio of Earth-sized planets orbiting a distant star
Humanity is going to have to leave Earth eventually. We’ve already messed up our planet pretty badly, and even if we don’t push the Earth …
Earth’s days used to be just 18 hours long, but the Moon changed that
If you’ve ever felt like there just aren’t enough hours in the day just be glad that you didn’t live on Earth 1.4 billion years …
Browse 20 years of Earth’s weather with NASA’s incredible Worldview tool
Whenever NASA shows off a stunning new image of Earth from space it’s fun to take a few minutes to soak in all the details. …
