Experiments show how concentrations of rare earth elements, critical to the green energy transition, might be hiding in plain sight in iron-rich deposits around the world.
unsolved mysteries
Posted inResearch Spotlights
The Moon’s Tides Hint at a Melty Lunar Layer
New lunar gravity measurements support the idea that a partially molten mantle layer is sandwiched between the rest of the Moon’s mantle and its core.
Posted inNews
Kepler’s Drawings Might Reveal When the Sunspots Disappeared
Johannes Kepler’s landmark 1607 sunspot observations may have been made at the end of the solar cycle, helping constrain the start of the Maunder Minimum.
Posted inNews
Sedimentos radiactivos podrían haber construido los cratones de la Tierra
La meteorización de los primeros continentes podría haber puesto en marcha la formación de cratones, las raíces inmutables de los continentes.
Posted inScience Updates
How Great was the “Great Oxidation Event”?
Geochemical sleuthing amid acid mine runoff suggests that scientists should rethink an isotope signal long taken to indicate low levels of atmospheric oxygen in Earth’s deep past.
Posted inNews
Scientists Find Clues to Atlantic Current’s Future in Ancient Iceberg Debris
Modern ice loss from Greenland rivals the most dramatic episodes of ice sheet collapse.
Posted inNews
A Sugar Coating for Arrokoth
A Kuiper Belt object might contain ribose and glucose on its surface—the same elements that could have seeded life on Earth.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Studying the Mystery of Uranus’s Curiously Weak Radiation Belts
The belts may not be weak at all—instead, they may be simply changing speed thanks to the planet’s asymmetric magnetic field.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Fifty-Three Experts Weigh in on the Global Methane Budget
A survey of experts revealed that uncertainty in estimates of global methane levels stems largely from data on fresh water, vegetation, and coastal areas.