A new computer simulation adds a crust to the Earth-smashing planet Theia, showing how a proto-Moon could form from the leftovers.
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Where Did Formaldehyde Rain Down on Mars? Almost Everywhere.
More formaldehyde rained down in places that were already wet and favorable for prebiotic chemistry.
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A Rock Avalanche Buried an Arctic Glacier. Was Climate Change to Blame?
Degrading permafrost and earlier small quakes likely weakened a rock slope until it collapsed and buried an Arctic glacier in tons of rock.
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White Dwarf Spotted Devouring the Planet It Birthed
Exotic chemical elements in the atmosphere of a dead star hint at the presence of a planet that formed after the star’s death—the first such second-generation planet ever seen.
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Oil and Gas Development Heightens Risk of Valley Fever
Kern County has more cases of valley fever and more fossil fuel wells than anywhere else in California. A new study suggests this might not be a coincidence.
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A Hydrological Paradox on the Silk Road
How did trade prosper in Central Asia during a period of droughts and little rain?
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Reading Rainfall in a Snail’s Shell
The chemical record of a snail shell is allowing scientists to reconstruct a record of past storms from the recent—and maybe distant—past.
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Scientists Finally Think They Know What Made These Geometric Fossils
Arthropods, with harder bodies and better cognition than some other candidates, seem to be the most likely culprit.
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Underwater Umbrellas Reduce—and Reverse—Coral Bleaching in the Caribbean
When corals get too hot, the algae that feed them can disappear, leaving them bleached. Blocking the Sun could help.
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Wildfires Burned in Antarctica 90 Million Years Ago
A new study finds evidence for the southernmost wildfires currently known, which may have facilitated a transition from temperate rainforest to peatland in Antarctica.