The lakes on Saturn’s moon Titan are filled with liquid methane, not water, and some are surrounded by steep rims. A new study suggests these features might have been caused by explosions of warming nitrogen, which created Titan’s lake basins long ago. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/did-underground-explosions-create-titans-lakes…
Tag: geoscience
A mountain on Ceres
This image, based on observations from NASA’s Dawn spacecraft, shows the largest mountain on the dwarf planet Ceres. Source: https://earthsky.org/todays-image/mountain-ceres-ahuna-mon-image…
Study shows that the Moon is older than previously believed
A new study spearheaded by Earth scientists at the University of Cologne’s Institute of Geology and Mineralogy has constrained the age of the Moon to approximately 50 million years after the formation of the solar system. After the formation of the solar system, 4.56 billion years ago, the Moon formed approximately 4.51 billion years ago. The new study has thus determined…
‘No Doubt Left’ About Scientific Consensus on Global Warming, Say Experts
The scientific consensus that humans are causing global warming is likely to have passed 99% https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/jul/24/scientific-consensus-on-humans-causing-global-warming-passes-99, according to the lead author of the most authoritative study on the subject, and could rise further after separate research that clears up some of the remaining doubts. From a report: Three studies published in Nature and Nature Geoscience use extensive historical data to show…
Study suggests much more water on the moon than thought
A trio of researchers at the University of California has found evidence that suggests there is far more ice on the surface of the moon than has been thought. In their paper published in the journal Nature Geoscience, Lior Rubanenko, Jaahnavee Venkatraman and David Paige describe their study of similarities between ice on Mercury and shadowed regions on the moon and…
Study suggests much more water on the moon than thought (Update)
A trio of researchers at the University of California has found evidence that suggests there is far more ice on the surface of the moon than has been thought. In their paper published in the journal Nature Geoscience, Lior Rubanenko, Jaahnavee Venkatraman and David Paige describe their study of similarities between craters on Mercury and craters on the moon and what…
Big earthquakes today in Australia and Indonesia
The 2 strong earthquakes of July 14, 2019 – the first a 6.6-magnitude off the western coast of Australia and the second a 7.3-magnitude in Indonesia – happened along the Pacific Ring of Fire. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/earthquakes-australia-indonesia-ring-of-fire-july-14-2019…
How meteors create Mars’ clouds
Scientists have been trying to figure out how clouds form in Mars’ thin atmosphere, and thanks to new research, the answer seems to be … meteors. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/how-meteors-create-mars-clouds…
Fossils reveal new details about hadrosaur’s appearance
More evidence for a showy, fleshy snout for the hadrosaur, part of the family of duck-billed dinosaurs. These creatures lived 75 million years ago in what’s now northern Montana and southern Alberta, Canada. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/juvenile-hadrosaur-fossil-reveals-fleshy-snout…
Gravitational data from Dawn suggests dome on Ceres is made of volcanic mud
An international team of researchers has found evidence that suggests the large dome found on the surface of the dwarf planet Ceres is made of slurry—a mix of salty brine and solid particles. In their paper published in the journal Nature Geoscience, the group describes their study of data from the Dawn spacecraft and what it revealed. Source: https://phys.org/news/2019-06-gravitational-dawn-dome-ceres-volcanic.html…