Image credit: Stefan Kühn Before we go, I have a new mystery for you. Researchers, with permission, took a small sample from the altar stone at Stonehenge and examined its composition and structure in a new level of detail. This information made it possible to determine the stone is 1000-2000 million years old, and chemically similar to rocks in the Orcadian Basin of Scotland. This research was a bit of a surprise to everyone because it had been assumed that this stone, like others, came from Whales. Stonehenge was built about 5000 years ago in Southern England. With one exception, it...
Dino-Killer Asteroid Came From the Outer Solar System
A shaded relief image of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. NASA/JPL-Caltech. The single messiest day in geologically recorded history was the day the dinosaurs died. On that day, and across the days that would follow, tidal waves wrapped multiple times around our world as...
Closer Look: The cost of the climate of academia
We are recording this episode about a week in advance of our normal recording date. This is because our producer Ally Pelphrey and I will be at the Balticon science fiction and fantasy convention over Memorial Day weekend and I’m then flying to Orlando where I’ll be...
Geology points to the path most chosen
One of the most common questions faced by those of us who study other worlds is this, “What good is studying planets when we have issues here on Earth?” Well, it turns out Earth happens to be a planet and sometimes geology can tell us really cool things about...
The Dying Sun will Take Out the Earth
Clumps of debris from a disrupted planetesimal are irregularly spaced on a long and eccentric orbit around the white dwarf. Individual clouds of rubble intermittently pass in front of the white dwarf, blocking some of its light. Because of the various sizes of the...
When the Sun Zots the Trees That’s a Scary Storm, Eh?
Our planet is constantly changing under the forces of humans, geology, and even the Sun. And while we can see what humans do daily and what geology does through quakes and eruptions almost weekly, catching the Sun being its bad self is a lot harder because it’s a lot...
Unexpectedly on the Endangered List: Antarctic Meteorites
Solar radiation heating the surface of a blue ice area. Photo taken during the 2023-2024 fieldwork mission of the Instituto Antártico Chileno (INACH) to Union Glacier, Ellsworth Mountains, Antarctica. Credit: Veronica Tollenaar, Université Libre de Bruxelles. As...
Invasive Species Boldly Go Where No Plant has Gone Before
Nordenskjöld glacier viewed from where its ice front was located in 2017. Credit: Dr Pierre Tichit Global travel and trade are making it easier and easier for invasive species to make their way to new parts of the world, including places where little to no life was...
Dear Future Self: Let’s Talk Climate Change
Credit: NOAA Recent research published in Science Advances and led by Madalina Vlascenu finds that when it comes to climate change, we can’t scare people straight. Stories of gloom and doom focused on the fate of our world don’t inspire people to change their ways and...
Closer Look: Following the Water Toward Climate Change
Image by Etienne Marais from Pixabay I’ve lived in my home for 17 years, which is the longest I’ve ever lived in one place. I like to garden, I participate in outdoor sports that are year-round, and this long-for-me timeline and familiarity with the outdoors means...
Caught on Camera and Apprehended
Mohutsiwa Gabadirwe (center of photo) and Peter Jenniskens (left, kneeling) at the site of the second find of a piece of asteroid 2018 LA recovered in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in central Botswana. Credit: SETI Institute Our Solar System contains a whole lot...