Scientists from MIT and other institutions, working closely with amateur astronomers, have spotted the dusty tails of six exocomets — comets outside our solar system — orbiting a faint star 800 light years from Earth. These cosmic balls of ice and dust,…
The Sun and Earth both produce powerful magnetic fields, and their intersection develops a complex system of physics that determines the space weather experienced by our planet. The solar wind – a constant stream of charged particles (plasma) emitted from the Sun -…
A new geological record of the Yellowstone supervolcano's last catastrophic eruption is rewriting the story of what happened 630 000 years ago and how it affected Earth's climate. This eruption formed the vast Yellowstone caldera observed today, the second…
Kyushu University-led researchers identified strong influence of pre-existing fault and plate structure on earthquake location and behavior in the Nankai Trough offshore of Japan. The islands of the Japanese archipelago are affected both by frequent, low-magnitude…
Seismic waves generated by tornadoes when they touch down could be used to measure a twister’s intensity, according to a new study. The new research examined a catastrophic tornado that struck Joplin, Missouri in May 2011 and revealed the size of seismic waves…
Researchers previously thought that X-rays and gamma radiation produced by lightning only lasted for a very short time, about one ten-thousandth of a second. However, a new study reveals that the ionizing radiation of lightning appears to emit much longer than…
Giant lateral collapses are huge landslides occurring at the flanks of a volcano. Giant lateral collapses are rather common events during the evolution of a large volcanic edifice, often with dramatic consequences such as tsunami and volcano explosions. These…
Whales and dolphins (Cetaceans) live in tightly-knit social groups, have complex relationships, talk to each other and even have regional dialects – much like human societies. A major new study, published recently in Nature Ecology & Evolution, has linked the…
Researchers in Germany have recovered an unusual set of teeth estimated to be 9.7 million years old. The teeth are unlike any found in Europe or Asia, but closely resemble the teeth of Lucy, the famed female specimen of the hominin species Australopithecus…
One of the worst nightmares for many Pacific Northwest residents is a huge earthquake along the offshore Cascadia Subduction Zone, which would unleash damaging and likely deadly shaking in coastal Washington, Oregon, British Columbia and northern California. The…
