A NASA astronaut has captured photographs from a window aboard the International Space Station (ISS) of eerie, glowing red lights hanging in Earth’s atmosphere. The stunning image, taken on June 3 by NASA’s SpaceX Crew-8 mission commander Matthew Dominick, captured the quick flash of a weather phenomenon known as “red sprite” lightning. Red sprites are … Read more
For thousands of years, people have watched the vibrant auroras dance across the night sky. But these magnificent displays are more than just a pretty sight. They are a warning sign of a hidden danger: geomagnetically induced currents. Auroras are caused by particles from the sun hitting the Earth’s magnetic field. These forces can compress … Read more
Credit: Harrison Haines from Pexels Auroras have inspired myths and omens for millennia, but only now, with modern technology that relies on electricity, do we appreciate their true power. The same forces that cause auroras also generate currents that can damage infrastructure that carries electricity, such as pipelines. Now scientists are writing in Frontiers in … Read more
In this modern age, we often take the stability of our world for granted. However, an academic revelation suggests that we are in the midst of a change so drastic that it feels like the ground is shifting beneath our feet. Well, at least the ground 3,220 miles beneath our feet, in the Earth’s inner … Read more
Deep within the Earth, a solid metal ball spins independently of our spinning planet, like a top spinning inside a larger top, shrouded in mystery. Since its discovery by Danish seismologist Inge Lehmann in 1936, this inner core has fascinated researchers. Its motion—including its speed and direction of rotation—has been the subject of decades-long debate. … Read more
The depth and inaccessibility of the inner core means that uncertainties remain. Deep within the Earth, a solid metal ball spins independently of our spinning planet, like a top spinning inside a larger top, shrouded in mystery. Since its discovery by Danish seismologist Inge Lehmann in 1936, this inner core has fascinated researchers. Its motion—including … Read more
Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news about fascinating discoveries, scientific developments and more. CNN — Deep within the Earth, a massive metal ball spins independently of our orbiting planet. It resembles a spinning top inside a larger top, shrouded in mystery. This inner core has intrigued scientists since … Read more
More than 400 million years ago, an upwelling of hot rock from the Earth’s mantle caused the crust in Mongolia to split apart, creating an ocean that lasted for 115 million years. The geologic history of this ocean could help researchers understand Wilson cycles, or the process by which supercontinents break apart and reassemble. These … Read more
The closer you look at the universe, the more mysterious it seems. NASA’s Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk (GOLD) mission recently revealed bizarre C- and X-shaped structures floating in the electrified layer of the ionosphere. “Who knew Earth’s upper atmosphere was like alphabet soup?” NASA wrote about the sighting on its website. The … Read more
Earth may be swimming in an ocean of dark matter, according to new theoretical research. Waves in that invisible ocean, lapping against our planet’s upper atmosphere, may generate detectable radio waves that could finally help us find this elusive part of the universe. A wealth of astrophysical and cosmological evidence points to the existence of … Read more