Planet Earth, features and articles | Educational Science

Nov 30, 2020

World's largest iceberg continues to break up off the coast of South Georgia

The world's (former) largest iceberg continues to break apart into smaller pieces on the doorstep of a major marine wildlife haven and home to millions of macaroni and king penguins in Antarctica. This comes less than a week after the mammoth iceberg, known as A68a, first split in two, Live...

Nov 30, 2020

The 100 best science photos of 2020

Science isn't always cerebral, oftentimes revealing its intricacies with a striking image. And 2020 revealed some science gems that were both stunning and awe-inspiring. From naked sharks to secret galaxy mergers to disco tardigrades and more, a trove of incredible science photos came to light this crazy year. Seal ballet...

Oct 31, 2020

Huge eruption of Italian volcano sends ash hundreds of feet into the air

An explosion on the slopes of Stromboli sent an avalanche of pyroclastic flow rushing down the side of the Italian volcano on Monday (Nov. 16). The stronger-than-usual explosion was captured on cameras operated by the Istituto Nazionale Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV). Imagery shared by Il Mondo dei Terremoti on Twitter...

Oct 31, 2020

Chinese submarine reaches the deepest place on Earth

The Chinese submersible Fendouzhe just reached one of the deepest spots on the planet, reaching a dizzying (and dark) depth of 35,791 feet (10,909 meters), according to a state-run news agency. During a months-long expedition, Fendouzhe completed 13 dives into the Mariana Trench — which boasts the deepest region on...

Sep 30, 2020

Rare full moon on Halloween will be seen across the US for the first time in 76 years

Moonrise on Halloween night will be just a little more spooktacular than usual this year. The sky will be illuminated by a full moon — a rare Hallows' Eve treat that happens only about once every 19 years. Something else makes this full moon, known as a Hunter's Moon, even...

Aug 31, 2020

Can diamonds burn?

Diamonds are forever, or so the slogan goes. But with the proper application of heat and enough oxygen, a diamond can go up in smoke. Diamonds are carbon, just like coal. It takes a bit more to get them burning and keep them burning than coal, but they will burn,...

Aug 31, 2020

We may finally know what life on Earth breathed before there was oxygen

Billions of years ago, long before oxygen was readily available, the notorious poison arsenic could have been the compound that breathed new life into our planet. In Chile's Atacama Desert, in a place called Laguna La Brava, scientists have been studying a purple ribbon of photosynthetic microbes living in a...

Jul 31, 2020

Two Canadian ice caps have completely vanished from the Arctic, NASA imagery shows

On frosty Ellesmere Island, where Arctic Canada butts up against the northwestern edge of Greenland, two once-enormous ice caps have completely vanished, new NASA imagery shows. It's no mystery where the caps, known as the St. Patrick Bay ice caps, went. Like many glacial features in the Arctic — which...

Jul 31, 2020

What would happen to Earth if humans went extinct?

Deep within Guatemala's rainforest sits one of the most famous remnants of the Maya civilization: a roughly 2,000-year-old citadel turned to ruins called Tikal. When Alan Weisman hiked through the surrounding region, he discovered something fascinating along the way: You're walking through this really dense rainforest, and you're walking over...

Jul 31, 2020

Texas and Louisiana face a double whammy of tropical cyclones

Tropical storm Marco will hit Louisiana and Texas later today (Aug. 24), and will likely cause significant flooding. Just a day and a half later, another cyclone, Laura, will likely ram itself against the same stretch of coastline — and will pack an even greater punch. Marco never developed into...

Jul 31, 2020

Ancient caiman with 'no parallel in the modern world' left 46 bite marks on sloth leg

About 13 million years ago, a ground sloth wandered too close to the water's edge, where a caiman lay waiting to strike. The attack likely happened in a flash, and ended with the caiman leaving nearly 50 tooth marks in the sloth's hind leg, a new study finds. Most of...

May 31, 2020

What's causing a spooky hum to fill parts of San Francisco?

The Golden Gate Bridge hums now. San Francisco residents shared recordings of the sound on social media last week and over the weekend as high winds swept through the Bay Area. One Twitter user described the sound as a three-tone dissonant soundtrack, and others reported hearing it from as far...

May 31, 2020

Scientists just sampled the most pristine air on Earth. Here's what they found.

The Southern Ocean is a vast band of open water that encircles the entire planet between Antarctica and the Southern Hemisphere landmasses. It is the cloudiest place on Earth, and the amount of sunlight that reflects off or passes through those clouds plays a surprisingly important role in global climate....

May 31, 2020

Siberian town records 100 degree F day — the hottest in Arctic history

Siberia — the land of black snow, blood rain and spontaneous solar eclipses — may have just set a dire new climate record. On Saturday (June 20), temperatures in the far-north town of Verkhoyansk broke 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius) for the first time, according to news reports. If...

May 31, 2020

Pentagon should release UFO report, Senate intelligence committee argues

The Pentagon should release a public report on UFOs, argues the U.S. Senate intelligence committee. In addition to requiring a public report, the committee plans to impose new rules on how the Department of Defense (DOD) shares information about UFOs. Unidentified flying objects — a term that refers to objects...