Weathering of the earliest continents could have set in motion the formation of cratons, the immutable roots of continents.
unsolved mysteries
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Magnetic Barriers Might Explain Mysterious Hot Jupiters
Hot Jupiters might end up very close to stars because a magnetic field halts their progress—and future observations could confirm the idea.
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Spiral Waves May Explain the Sun’s Baffling Rotation
New observations and models show a connection between high-latitude waves in the Sun’s interior and the different rates of spin between the solar equator and poles.
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A Step Closer to Solving the Fermi Paradox
Finding evidence of complex life elsewhere in the Milky Way galaxy hinges on locating rocky planets with plate tectonics and a mixture of landmasses and oceans, new research suggests.
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The Moon’s Mantle Did a Flip—and Scientists May Now Have Evidence
For decades, a lunar whodunit has puzzled scientists: Did the Moon’s internal layers flip during its formation? Old data might hold the evidence to solve this cold case.
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Middle-of-the-Road Mountains Form the Best Carbon Sinks
Silicate rock weathering has a sweet spot: erosion that isn’t too fast or too slow.
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Fiber-Optic Networks Could Reveal the Moon’s Inner Structure
Distributed acoustic sensing offers a cost-effective alternative to traditional seismic arrays, and building such a network on the Moon might be possible.
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Mysterious Seafloor Pits May Be Made on Porpoise
Some shallow seafloor depressions off the coast of Germany that look like those associated with methane might instead be the work of porpoises.
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Did a Cosmic Explosion Make the Ionosphere Dance?
Researchers have linked a 2022 gamma ray burst to a disturbance in the upper atmosphere, but proving the connection highlights the problems with this kind of measurement.
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Steamy Bubbles May Control Old Faithful’s Clock
Scientists built a minigeyser to show why the natural wonder’s water surges so violently between eruptions.