With an abundant supply of liquid water, Earth is one of the few places in the universe where life can develop and flourish. But scientists have long wondered where exactly all of our life-giving ...

This discovery changes how we think about where life can exist. It shows that geological activity alone, without sunlight or organic matter, can provide enough energy for ecosystems to survive ...

Earth has experienced both hot and cold periods over time, though warm times have been more common. That’s true of the last 485 million years, as seen in this timeline reported in 2024. Our genus, ...

Most Carbon-Rich Asteroids Never Make It to Earth—and Now We Know Why A study of thousands of space rocks may explain why a common type in space is so uncommon on our planet.

Bennu is a small near-Earth asteroid – just about 500 metres in diameter – but it’s one of the most studied and scientifically valuable objects of its kind. Unlike the metal-rich asteroids mentioned ...

Chinese researchers have recently challenged the long-held belief that "all life depends on sunlight." In a study published in Science Advances, the ...

But a water origin of those features is not accepted yet. It could be dry avalanches. We’ve seen a lot of things on Mars, and on other planets, that have no good analogs on Earth.

In those places—generally volcanic hot spots where magma flows at shallow depths in the Earth’s crust and underground water reservoirs—geothermal energy can be a substantial source of power.