An outburst of methane produced effects similar to those predicted by current models of global climate change: a sudden, extreme rise in temperatures, combined with acidification of the oceans. In the case of the end-Permian extinction, virtually all shell-forming...
Artist's rendering of the landscape during end-Permian extinction.
Credit: José-Luis Olivares/MIT
The largest mass extinction in the history of animal life occurred some 252 million years ago, wiping out more than 96 percent of marine species and 70 percent of life...
This shows secondary electron image of pits left by ion microprobe analyses of a heterogeneous apatite grain in Apollo sample 14321, 1047. Water has now been detected in apatite in many different lunar rock types.
Credit: Katharine L. Robinson, University...
In this artist's rendering, flows of electrically charged ions and electrons accelerate along Jupiter's magnetic field lines (fountain-like blue curves), triggering auroras (blue rings) at the planet's pole. Accelerated particles come from clouds of material (red) spewed from volcanoes...
Mosaic of the Valles Marineris hemisphere of Mars projected into point perspective, a view similar to that which one would see from a spacecraft.
Credit: NASA
The origin and nature of Mars is mysterious. It has geologically distinct hemispheres, with smooth...
Plots of AMPERE magnetic perturbations and radial current density from the northern hemisphere for 24 February 2014 with start times from 1530 UT through 1700 UT.
Credit: Image courtesy of Wiley
When the supersonic solar wind hits Earth's magnetic field, a...
Planet Earth. The tardigrade, also known as the water bear, is the toughest, most resilient, form of life on Earth.
Credit: © timothyh / Fotolia
The world's most indestructible species, the tardigrade, an eight-legged micro-animal, also known as the water bear,...
Before the low oxygen period, bivalves were larger and more numerous.
Credit: The University of Texas at Austin/Rowan Martindale
Using a combination of fossils and chemical markers, scientists have tracked how a period of globally low ocean-oxygen turned an Early Jurassic...
Scientists ask how it's possible that certain coral reefs are thriving in this location.
Credit: Amy Baco-Taylor
Scientists have long believed that the waters of the Central and Northeast Pacific Ocean were inhospitable to deep-sea scleractinian coral, but a Florida State...
As the light from the star passes through the Earth’s atmosphere some of it is absorbed in the ozone layer. This results in a clear feature that can be seen using telescopes like JWST. Venus, however, has no ozone...
This is a map showing detachment of iceberg, based on data from NASA's Aqua Modis satellite. July 12, 2017.
Credit: MIDAS Project, Swansea University
A one trillion tonne iceberg -- one of the biggest ever recorded -- has calved away from...
