University of Maryland geophysicist Nicholas Schmerr and Smithsonian Senior Scientist Emeritus Thomas R. Watters identified seismic activity that could pose a threat to future missions to the moon.

For more than 100 years, scientists have puzzled over whether the Earth’s magnetic field had already been generated stably back in its early days when its inner core was fully liquid – unlike it is today. A team of geophysicists has used a simulation to show that this was highly likely.

An international team of astronomers has captured one of the most detailed images yet of a spectacular, ribbon-like jet emerging from the heart of the distant active galaxy, OJ 287. Enabled by the RadioAstron space telescope in combination with a global network of radio observatories, this breakthrough sheds new light on the extreme environments surrounding supermassive black holes and the powerful jets they launch into space.

Studying plant vegetative reproduction is key to increasing crop yield and for bioengineering. Kobe University research is making progress on studying the genetic regulation of the process in liverworts, which are ideal model plants and even a candidate for space crops.

Since the beginning of Earth's history, tiny particles of rock and metal from space have been hitting our planet. On clear nights, we can even see their traces as shooting stars. Trapped in layers of rock, these micrometeorites can remain preserved for billions of years. An international research team led by the University of Göttingen and including the Open University, the University of Pisa, and Leibniz University Hannover has developed a method that allows them to reconstruct the atmosphere of the past using fossilized micrometeorites. The results were published in Communications Earth & Environment.

A new paper led by a York University professor and published today in Nature Astronomy introduces a simple theoretical framework to describe the evolution of the coupled interior–atmosphere system of hot rocky exoplanets known as “lava planets.” The study combines expertise in geophysical fluid mechanics, exoplanetary atmospheres, and mineralogy to explore how the compositions of lava planets evolve through a process akin to distillation. What began as an exploratory study has since opened a promising new line of research. The predictions outlined in this work helped secure 100 hours of observation time on the James Webb Space Telescope.