Katherine Kornei

All Stories by Katherine Kornei

  1. Planetary Science

    An asteroid may have exploded over Antarctica about 2.5 million years ago

    Tiny spherules of rock found in Antarctic ice may point to the oldest known “airburst,” or midair disintegration of an incoming asteroid.

  2. Oceans

    Ocean heat waves often lurk out of sight

    About 1 in 3 marine heat waves occur below the surface, a new study reports, suggesting these harmful events are more common than previously thought.

  3. Planetary Science

    How drones are helping scientists find meteorites

    Searching for fallen space rocks is labor intensive. A team of researchers in Australia is speeding things up with drones and machine learning.

  4. Animals

    For the first time, researchers decoded the RNA of an extinct animal

    The Tasmanian tiger, or thylacine, was hunted nearly to extinction. Now RNA extracted from a museum specimen reveals how its cells functioned.

  5. Space

    India’s successful moon landing follows recent failures by other countries

    The Chandrayaan-3 mission delivered a lander and rover to the moon. Attempts by other countries this year show that getting there is still a challenge.

  6. Environment

    The most intense sunlight on Earth can be found in the Atacama Desert

    On the Chilean Altiplano plateau, every square meter of the ground receives, on average, more solar power than Mount Everest and occasionally almost as much as Venus.

  7. Planetary Science

    Granite likely lurks beneath the moon’s surface

    Without plate tectonics or water, granite is hard to make. But a 50-kilometer-wide hunk sits beneath the moon’s surface, lunar orbiter data suggest.

  8. Environment

    Surviving a drought may help forests weather future dry spells

    Climate change is making droughts more intense and frequent, but conifer forests have a trick up their sleeve, airplane and satellite data show.

  9. Planetary Science

    Why you shouldn’t use magnets when looking for meteorites

    A popular tool for identifying meteorites can overwrite records of magnetic fields stored within the space rocks.

  10. Oceans

    Satellite data reveal nearly 20,000 previously unknown deep-sea mountains

    By looking for tiny bumps in sea level caused by the gravity of subsurface mountains, researchers have roughly doubled the number of known seamounts.

  11. Environment

    Satellite imagery reveals ‘hidden’ tornado tracks

    Twisters that churn over barren landscapes leave scars that are invisible to human eyes but are detectable with infrared light.

  12. Agriculture

    Dry farming could help agriculture in the western U.S. amid climate change

    Some farmers in the western United States are forgoing irrigation, which can save on water and produce more flavorful fruits and vegetables.