Geology

NASA’s Perseverance rover has captured some incredible imagery since landing on the Red Planet early last year, but none as detailed as its latest effort, a stunning mosaic made up of more than 1,000 separate images.

Australian scientists have discovered strangely folded diamonds in rare meteorite samples. In investigating how they came to form, the team found evidence that they were forged in a cataclysm on an ancient dwarf planet.

Geologists claim to have discovered a long-term cycle that may link the formation of Earth’s continents to our travels through the galaxy. The team claims a correlation between increased comet impacts and Earth crossing the galactic spiral arms.

Scientists have discovered a new crater in the seabed of the North Atlantic Ocean that seems to date to the end of the Cretaceous period. That suggests the extinction event that killed off the dinosaurs could have been triggered by multiple impacts.

Astronomers have found more evidence of giant ice volcanoes on Pluto. New analysis of data and images gathered by the New Horizons mission have revealed unique surface structures that seem to have been produced by something known as cryovolcanism.

A mystery that has puzzled scientists for over 25 years may have been solved as a new study led by the Carnegie Institution for Science suggests that signs of ancient life in a famous Martian meteorite may be due to geochemical processes.

The extremely hot interior of Earth is slowly cooling down, but exactly how fast is unknown. By studying how well a common deep-Earth mineral conducts heat, researchers have now found that the planet’s interior may be cooling faster than expected.

Scientists have concluded that the great mountain ranges of the world produced by the collision of Earth's tectonic plates reached their great heights thanks to lubricating graphite, which resulted from an abundance of ancient ocean life.

Jezero crater on Mars was chosen as the landing site for the Perseverance rover because satellite images suggested it was once an ancient lake. More direct evidence has now been found, as photos snapped by the rover reveal signs of flash flooding.

NASA’s Curiosity rover has been exploring Gale crater for nine years, studying sediments that look an awful lot like those left behind from an ancient lake. But new research from the University of Hong Kong proposes a much drier explanation.

Most of us have in our busy lives wished there were more hours in the day. That wish actually came true billions of years ago – and that might be why we have so much oxygen now, as photosynthesizing microbes took advantage of the productivity boost.

NASA's InSight has provided … well, insight, into the inner workings of the Red Planet. By monitoring marsquakes over the past two years, the instrument measured the thickness and composition of Mars’ crust, mantle and core, revealing some surprises.