Earths
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Earth
Iron melting temperature and phase stability under nuclear-like conditions shed light on Earth’s geodynamics
Laser-driven impact phenomena in iron at high-power laser facilities (HPLF). X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) was used to determine the melting temperature and microstructure of iron at pressures relevant to geosciences. Credit: Jean-Alexis Hernandez, European Synchrotron Radiation Facility. Iron is one of the major elements found in the Earth’s inner core, which is characterized by extremely high temperatures and pressures. Therefore,…
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Space & Cosmos
NASA’s LEXI provides X-ray vision of Earth’s magnetosphere
This visualization shows the LEXI instrument aboard Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 1, which will deliver 10 Commercial Lunar Payload Service (CLPS) payloads to the Moon. Credit: Firefly Aerospace NASA’s X-ray imager will head to the moon as part of the agency’s Artemis campaign, where it will take the world’s first images of the magnetic field that protects Earth from…
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Space & Cosmos
Two clusters of dark comets in our solar system could tell researchers where Earth’s oceans are located
Dark comets fly through space, but unlike comets, they do not have dust tails. Credit: Adina Feinstein and NASA Earth Observatory The water that makes up the oceans served as an important element for the development of life on Earth. But scientists still don’t know where the water on Earth comes from in the first place. One leading idea is…
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Earth
Thermodynamic model determines how gold reaches the earth’s surface
Credit: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2024). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2404731121 A research team including scientists from the University of Michigan has discovered a new gold-sulfur complex that can help researchers understand how gold deposits form. Gold in deposits associated with volcanoes around the Pacific Ring of Fire originates from the Earth’s mantle and is transported to the surface by…
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Earth
Shedding light on snow’s important role in Earth’s climate system
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain EU researchers are venturing into extreme arctic conditions to uncover the important role of snow in the Earth’s climate system. The average temperature is -30 degrees Celsius, and there is darkness for up to 24 hours a day. These were the working conditions of a team of scientists who spent nine months studying Arctic snow. Snow…
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Environment
Plans to stabilize Earth’s climate depend on new carbon removal technologies – we need to get moving, researchers say
For Australia to reach net zero by 2050, 133 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions (COâ‚‚ or equivalent) need to be removed from the atmosphere. Credit: Climate Change Agency, 2024, CC BY Carbon emissions from fossil fuels continue to rise globally, and 2024 is likely to be the world’s hottest year. It is becoming increasingly clear that limiting global warming…
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Space & Cosmos
Powerful new satellites from US and India track Earth’s changing surface
NISAR’s mission will help researchers study how the Earth’s surface changes over time, including the lead-up to the pictured volcanic eruption at Redoubt Mountain in southern Alaska in April 2009. It will help you understand more deeply. Credit: RG McGimsey/AVO/USGS Data from NISAR improves our understanding of phenomena such as earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides, and damage to infrastructure. Although we don’t…
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Earth
Easter Island’s volcanic history suggests that Earth’s mantle behaves very differently than previously assumed
The structure of the mantle plume beneath Easter Island. Credit: Douwe van Hinsbergen Geography textbooks describe the Earth’s mantle, which lies beneath the plates, as a well-mixed, viscous rock that moves with the plates like a conveyor belt. But this idea was first broached about 100 years ago, and it’s surprisingly difficult to prove. A mysterious discovery on Easter Island,…
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Space & Cosmos
X-rays advance understanding of Earth’s core-mantle boundary and super-Earth magma oceans
Schematic diagram of the experimental setup available at the MEC end station. Four epiX 10k detectors cover the Q range from 15 to 106 nm-1 with an X-ray beam energy of 17 keV. The complete signal can be reconstructed by stitching together the diffuse scattering recorded by each detector. Credit: Nature Communications (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-51796-7 Researchers at the Department of…
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Earth
Geologists discover mysterious subduction zone beneath the Pacific Ocean, reshaping understanding of Earth’s interior
A map depicting the area where the ancient ocean floor was discovered. Credit: Jingchuan Wang, University of Maryland. Scientists at the University of Maryland have discovered evidence of an ancient ocean floor that sank deep into the Earth during the age of dinosaurs, casting doubt on existing theories about the Earth’s internal structure. This previously unstudied section of the ocean…
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