Researchers deploy geochemical analyses to narrow down the search area for a soil sample’s site of origin—an approach that could prove useful to law enforcement.
unsolved mysteries
Exploring the Dramatic Shift in Ice Age Duration
Scientists are still seeking an explanation for the Mid-Pleistocene Transition when ice ages became longer in duration and exploring what it may mean for future climate change.
Subduction Initiation May Depend on a Tectonic Plate’s History
New seismic imaging study of the Puysegur Trench aims to solve one of the last major questions in plate tectonics.
Convective Transport Explains “Missing” Ice near the Tropical Tropopause
Spaceborne lidar shows that more ice than expected is leaving the tropical tropopause layer in the atmosphere.
Exploring Venus by Balloon
Aerobots could help reveal secrets of Earth’s mysterious twin planet.
形成黄道光的太空尘埃可能来自火星
朱诺号探测器飞往木星途中的偶然发现表明,形成黄道光的太空尘埃可能来自火星,但这些尘埃是如何从火星或其卫星逃逸出来的仍不得而知。
The Space Dust That Causes Zodiacal Light Might Come from Mars
Serendipitous observations by the Juno spacecraft while it was en route to Jupiter suggest a Martian source for the dust, but how the dust escapes Mars or its moons remains unknown.
Modeling the Creation of Cratons, Earth’s Secret Keepers
Geoscientists have long been trying to answer the complicated questions of how and why Earth’s continents formed. New research suggests a solution that surprised even the investigators themselves.
The Herky-Jerky Weirdness of Earth’s Magnetic Field
Dented, erratic, and wandering, our field is constantly changing its mind.