Planetary Science

  1. Earth

    Comet likely culprit in Tunguska blast

    Analysis of shuttle plume movement suggests Tunguska event could have caused clouds over London.

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  2. Earth

    Lopsided lights

    Simultaneous snapshots reveal that northern and southern auroras aren’t always alike.

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  3. Planetary Science

    Losing Louisiana

    A new model predicts that rises in sea level, combined with subsiding lands, will claim a tenth of the state by century’s end.

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  4. Planetary Science

    Solar system’s future could be bumpy

    A new study assesses the chances that two planets will collide or a planet will plunge into the sun in the next 5 billion years.

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  5. Earth

    Phytoliths as climate clues

    Tiny silica plant structures from soil could track temperature changes.

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  6. Earth

    Bricks, mortar and magnetism

    Medieval French castle, churches yield new data about Earth’s changing magnetic field.

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  7. Earth

    A more organic meteorite

    Some meteorites may contain a higher concentration of organic chemicals than previously thought.

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  8. Tech

    White House commissions spaceflight-review panel

    Outside experts are being asked to advise NASA on how to get astronauts into space after the shuttle program dies next year.

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  9. Earth

    A little air pollution boosts vegetation’s carbon uptake

    Aerosols bumped up world’s plant productivity by 25 percent in the 1960s and 1970s, new research suggests.

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  10. Planetary Science

    Antarctic ecosystem holds unusual microbes

    Long isolated deep under a glacier, life thrives in dark, salty water by breathing iron and eating sulfates.

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  11. Planetary Science

    Seeing the future hot spells

    Satellite data could help scientists better predict killer heat waves, such as the one that hit Europe in 2003.

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  12. Space

    Galaxy mix: No dark matter required

    New ultraviolet observations suggest dwarf galaxies may form without dark matter. The findings have implications for the early universe.

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