The latest news briefs from NASA science.
With several hundred blows of a 10-pound (4.5-kilogram) sledgehammer, researchers tested a method to find subsurface caves that could serve as safe underground habitats and research facilities on the Moon and Mars. The team, which includes NASA scientists, conducted their field experiments near Flagstaff, Arizona, and Tulelake, California, in locations that resemble the landscapes future […]
NASA scientists have developed a new set of tools to monitor plant growth under various conditions throughout the growing season. The hope is that land managers could use these tools to detect sudden drops in plant productivity and to respond earlier to events like heat stress, droughts, and cold snaps. Monitoring the productivity, or how […]
Several regions around the world are seeing marked declines in water availability, according to a paper published in the journal Science Advances on July 25. The study, partially funded by NASA, found that dry areas are increasing by about twice the size of California each year. Researchers identified the trend using data collected from 2002 […]
Heat rising from wildfires can create clouds that produce extreme amounts of lightning, but this doesn’t necessarily increase the risk of secondary fires. The mixed blessings of lightning activity over wildfires are the subject of a study in JGR Atmospheres of data from the massive Sparks Lake fire in British Columbia in June 2021. Researchers […]
Researchers have developed a new way to measure near-shore bathymetry using satellite observations alone. Soon after NASA’s ICESat-2 satellite launched into orbit in 2018 on a mission to measure the heights of Earth’s ice, forests, and land cover, scientists examined the data and found something unexpected. As the laser instrument aboard the Ice, Cloud, land, […]
As much as half of the carbon dioxide emissions that result from deforestation and other land-use changes in Southeast Asia could be reduced by saving two kinds of wetlands: peatlands and mangroves, according to a study published in Nature Communications. Wetlands store three to five times more carbon than tropical dryland forests and they absorb […]
Earth is literally inclined to be habitable. After running 93 simulations, NASA-funded researchers have gained a clearer understanding of the parameters that make the orbits of Earth-like planets suitable for land-based lifeforms to thrive. The length of our planet’s day, the tilt of its axis, and other orbital parameters ensure that the seasons, sunlight, and temperatures […]
Drill core samples from a unique geological deposit in northeastern Namibia could reveal clues about fluctuations in marine redox conditions during the Neoproterozoic. The Hüttenberg formation shows a ‘stepwise pattern’ of oceanic oxygenation that occurred during this period of Earth’s history. The study also reveals local, and possibly global, environmental controls that resulted in features […]
A recent study examines the loss of volatile elements during magma ocean phases on planetary bodies. The work compares zinc (Zn) in basalts from the Earth and Moon. Zn is a a useful tracer for volatile elements because its abundance tends to be elevated in basalts on Earth. Concentrations of Zn in lunar basalts can […]
