Earth

New research from an international team of scientists is suggesting that instantly recognizable earthy smell after rain is released by bacteria trying to attract a particular arthropod as a way to spread its spores.

Antarctica wasn't always a cold lifeless landscape. An international team has recovered a 90-million-year old soil sample that paints the most detailed picture of ancient Antarctica ever found, revealing a swampy rainforest and balmy temperatures.

The Minor Planet Center has announced that Earth now has two moons. But don’t bother running outside to check – this second satellite is tiny and temporary. The newcomer, designated 2020 CD3, measures between 1.9 and 3.5 m (6.2 and 11.5 ft) wide.

Scientists have identified the oldest impact site ever to scar our planet’s surface. The body that formed the Yarrabubba crater in the Australian outback struck Earth 2.229 billion years ago, and may have helped end a global ice age.

Science stands still for no one, and with a new year comes a new calendar of exciting events in spaceflight and exploration. New Atlas rounds up some of the most important milestones to look forward to in 2020.

Researchers have discovered the oldest material on Earth – and it’s not from Earth. Tiny grains from a meteorite that fell in Australia were found to be between 5 and 7 billion years old, meaning they predate our planet, the Sun and the solar system.

New evidence suggests that snow may be falling within the broiling hot core of planet Earth. Of course, this isn’t your everyday surface snow – these flakes would be made of iron, settling onto the solid inner core through the more fluid outer core.

Despite raising the alert level weeks prior to the devastating events of Monday, the violent eruption on White Island was not one authorities were able to predict with any precision, owing to the type of delicate, steam-driven processes that led to its explosion.

A new report declaring a climate emergency has been signed by thousands of scientists. But it remains hopeful, outlining six steps we can take to mitigate the worst effects of climate change – provided we act sooner rather than later.

About 65 million years ago, a huge asteroid slammed into the Earth and wiped out three quarters of all life on Earth, including the dinosaurs. Now, Yale researchers have found evidence that oceans became too acidic for marine animals to take.

Scientists have found some of the earliest direct evidence of life, in the form of organic remains in 3.5-billion-year-old stromatolites in Australia.

A new study argues that the death of a huge asteroid caused an ice age that dramatically altered the evolution of life on Earth.