LIVE SCIENCE - Given that it's the closest planet to the sun, Mercury seems like it should be the hottest planet in our solar system. However, at a blistering 900 degrees Fahrenheit (480 degrees Celsius), Venus tops Mercury's 800 F (430 C) highest surface temperature, despite being an average of 31 million miles (50 million...
EARTH.COM - Nobody can tell you exactly when an earthquake will hit. But a team of scientists has gotten remarkably good at answering a different question: where. Their new method, developed at the University of California, Riverside (UCR), flags the specific stretches of major earthquake faults where stress has been quietly piling up for years...
GIZMODO - Earthquakes may strike without warning, but the ground beneath us is rarely completely still. Current systems can measure these tiny movements with remarkable precision, but until now, they have been used mainly to understand how faults behave rather than to predict where an earthquake might strike. Now, a new approach is challenging that...
KTLA 5 LOS ANGELES - Scientists at the University of California-Riverside have developed a way to identify where the biggest earthquakes are likely to occur. UC Riverside researchers say that their methodology identifies where stress has been building along major faults, so scientists can determine where a rupture will take place. It does not predict...
ZME SCIENCE - Venus has no moon today. But it may not always have been alone. A new study suggests that if a giant impact gave early Venus a substantial moon, tidal forces could eventually have reversed the satellite’s path and dragged it back toward the planet. Venus would then have torn the moon apart...
ZME SCIENCE - Discovering Venus-like conditions beyond our Solar System could reveal why some rocky worlds remain havens for life while others become scorching greenhouse infernos. Before solving that mystery, however, astronomers must determine how quickly those distant planets are truly spinning. Slower rotations can cause hellish conditions astronomers see on Venus, but new research...
ABC7 NEWS - A new study suggests a major ocean current in the Atlantic Ocean is slowing down, a shift researchers say could influence weather patterns around the world, including the intensity of storms affecting California. Researchers have been examining changes in the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, known as the AMOC, a system of ocean...
LIVE SCIENCE - Astronomers have found the strongest evidence yet that a rocky planet beyond our solar system has managed to hold onto an atmosphere — a crucial ingredient for life as we know it. The discovery marks the first time scientists have detected an atmosphere surrounding a rocky planet orbiting in the habitable zone...
SCIENCE ALERT - Earth's climate systems are inexorably and often unexpectedly interconnected. Dust from North Africa's Sahara Desert drifts thousands of miles to fuel food webs in the Amazon and the ocean's depths, while pollution-eating microbes hitch a ride through the atmosphere on gusts of wind or wisps of fog. Among the most influential planet-shaping...
YAHOO NEWS - Fossils from South Australia are offering a surprising clue about the deep history of animal behavior. Spriggina floundersi, an ancient organism that lived about 550 million years ago, may represent the oldest known example of "right-handedness" in animals, suggesting a preference for turning right emerged long before hands, feet, or widespread complex...