The Earth's atmosphere also traps heat from the Sun, in what is known as the greenhouse effect, and without this phenomenon, the Earth would be a much colder place, making it much more hostile to ...

These ancient cores may contain clues about an unexplained change in Earth’s glacial-interglacial cycles, and could shed ...

Astronomers have spotted an unexpected chemical element high within the atmosphere of two sizzling exoplanets where liquid iron and gems rain down ... WASP-121b is about 855 light-years from Earth.

Around 4.6 billion years ago, a vast cloud of gas and dust called a molecular cloud drifted through the Milky Way. Composed ...

Mysterious dark matter could slosh over our planet like a wave. If it does, it may produce telltale radio waves in Earth's atmosphere, new theoretical research suggests.

Ancient oceans with phosphorus-rich waters may have supported some of Earth’s earliest microbial life, according to a new ...

Real world measurements of how much extra heat the Earth is trapping are well beyond most climate models. That’s a real ...

Understanding Earth’s composition first requires an explanation of how planets form — a process that begins with a giant gaseous disk surrounding a star. Although Earth’s atmosphere is now ...

The amount of oxygen in the Earth’s atmosphere makes it a habitable planet. Twenty-one percent of the atmosphere consists of this life-giving element. But in the deep past — as far back as the ...

First came the surprising discovery that Earth’s atmosphere is leaking. But for roughly 60 years, the reason remained a mystery. Since the late 1960s, satellites over the poles detected an ...

Earth’s atmosphere now has more carbon dioxide in it than it has in millions — and possibly tens of millions — of years, according to data released Thursday by the National Oceanic and ...