Articles on Earth

Displaying 1 - 20 of 238 articles

Wendell Berry, right, joins an ‘I Love Mountains’ rally against mountaintop mining at the Kentucky Capitol in 2013. AP Photo/James Crisp

Farmer‑poet Wendell Berry’s environmental ethics were deeply rooted in his Christian faith and belief in caring for creation

Berry’s belief that humans have a responsibility to care for God’s creation traces back to the Book of Genesis. So does an opposing argument for environmental exploitation.
To sustainably survive on the Moon, the rock that stretches as far as the eye can see across its surface might well be able to provide us with the air we need to breathe. Eugene A. Cernan/NASA

Is extracting oxygen from lunar soil the future of space exploration?

As lunar missions are back in vogue with engineering more sustainable human presence on the Moon in mind, there’s no getting away from the fact that you can’t breathe on a satellite that has no atmosphere.
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover took this selfie in 2020, after drilling a rock sample from a spot nicknamed “Mary Anning.” After years of extensive analysis, the sample has revealed the greatest diversity of organic molecules ever found on Mars. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)

Did NASA’s Curiosity rover find signs of ancient life on Mars? An astrobiologist explains how we determine ‘life’

Study of extreme environments on Earth, along with exploration of the lifeless surface of the moon, can help us understand what life on Mars might look like.
A muted blue Earth with bright white clouds sets behind the cratered lunar surface, captured through the Orion spacecraft window at 6:41 p.m. EDT, April 6, 2026, during the Artemis II crew’s flyby of the Moon. (NASA)

How the Artemis II crew trained to observe and photograph the moon: A NASA science team geologist explains

From geology training on Mushuau Innu First Nation territory in Labrador, to a new NASA Science Evaluation Room, Gordon Osinski takes us behind the scenes of Artemis II.
A black smoker hydrothermal vent at a wa­ter depth of 3,300 meters in the Log­atchev Hy­dro­thermal Field on the Mid-At­lantic Ridge. (Zentrum für Marine Umweltwissenschaften, Universität Bremen)

How the ocean’s hydrothermal systems made the first life on Earth possible

Researchers have discovered that chemical reactions in underwater hydrothermal vents could have produced the necessary ingredients for life on Earth.

Top contributors

More