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Fledgling planets discovered around a newly formed star

With an arsenal of advanced technology, scientists have found a multi-planet star system that provides a rare insight into the way planets form and behave around a young star. TOI-1136 is a dwarf star in the Milky Way galaxy more than 270 light years from Earth, which is considered nearby, as the Milky Way is...
By Jules Bernstein |

Trilobites rise from the ashes to reveal ancient map

Ten newly discovered species of trilobites, hidden for 490 million years in a little-studied part of Thailand, could be the missing pieces in an intricate puzzle of ancient world geography. Trilobites are extinct sea creatures with half-moon-shaped heads that breathed through their legs. A 100-page monograph in the British journal offers great detail about the...
By Jules Bernstein |

Giant planets cast a deadly pall

Giant gas planets can be agents of chaos, ensuring nothing lives on their Earth-like neighbors around other stars. New studies show, in some planetary systems, the giants tend to kick smaller planets out of orbit and wreak havoc on their climates. Jupiter, by far the biggest planet in our solar system, plays an important protective...
By Jules Bernstein |

Study ties fracking to another type of shaking

New research confirms fracking causes slow, small earthquakes or tremors, whose origin was previously a mystery to scientists. The tremors are produced by the same processes that could create large, damaging earthquakes. Fracking is the high-pressure injection of fluids underground to extract oil and natural gas. Though it is typically done with wastewater, this study...
By Jules Bernstein |

The trilobites’ guide to surviving environmental change

Scientists have worked out how one unusual species of trilobite — an ancient, sea-dwelling relative of spiders and lobsters — was able to defend itself against predators and survive a bumpy ride as Earth’s oxygen levels fluctuated. The seas were filled with trilobites for nearly 300 million years starting in the Cambrian Period, some 520...
By Jules Bernstein |

Study advances understanding of anthropogenic effects on climate change

Anthropogenic aerosols — aerosols originating from human activity — and greenhouse gases, or GHGs, have helped modulate the storage and distribution of heat in oceans since the industrial age. Isolating and quantifying the effects of both forcers using coupled climate model simulations, a University of California, Riverside-led team has found that anthropogenic aerosols and GHGs...
By Iqbal Pittalwala |

Are Earth and Venus the only volcanic planets? Not anymore.

Imagine an Earth-sized planet that’s not at all Earth-like. Half this world is locked in permanent daytime, the other half in permanent night, and it’s carpeted with active volcanoes. Astronomers have discovered that planet. The planet, named LP 791-18d, orbits a small red dwarf star about 90 light years away. Volcanic activity makes the discovery...
By Jules Bernstein |

Earth’s first animals had particular taste in real estate

Even without body parts that allowed for movement, new research shows — for the first time — that some of Earth’s earliest animals managed to be picky about where they lived. These creatures from the Ediacaran Period, roughly 550 million years ago, are strangely shaped soft-bodied animals that lived in the sea. Researchers have long...
By Jules Bernstein |
Man inspecting fossils

Australian fossil goldmine opens permanently

Land where a UC Riverside paleontology professor unearthed whole communities of Earth’s oldest animals is opening today to the public as a new national park in the Australian Outback. Nilpena Ediacara National Park harbors the richest collection on Earth of preserved animal species from the Ediacaran era, around 550 million years ago. Some of the...
By Jules Bernstein | | Paleontology, Paleobiology, Paleoecology

Surprise effect: Methane cools even as it heats

Most climate models do not yet account for a new UC Riverside discovery: methane traps a great deal of heat in Earth’s atmosphere, but also creates cooling clouds that offset 30% of the heat. Read More
By JULES BERNSTEIN |

Hunting Venus 2.0: Scientists sharpen their sights

With the first paper compiling all known information about planets like Venus beyond our solar system, scientists are the closest they’ve ever been to finding an analog of Earth’s “twin.” Read More
By Jules Bernstein |

The planet that could end life on Earth

A terrestrial planet hovering between Mars and Jupiter would be able to push Earth out of the solar system and wipe out life on this planet, according to a UC Riverside experiment. Read More
By Jules Bernstein |

Breathing is going to get tougher

Not all pollution comes from people. When global temperatures increase by 4 degrees Celsius, harmful plant emissions and dust will also increase by as much as 14 percent, according to new UC Riverside research. Read More
By Jules Bernstein |

California will inevitably shake like Turkey

The magnitude 7.8 earthquake that killed — by current count — more than 6,000 people in Turkey and Syria on Sunday was produced by the same type of fault underlying most of California. Sunday’s event could be felt more than 200 miles from its epicenter, and it has produced a humanitarian disaster in a region...
By Jules Bernstein |

Earth might be experiencing 7th mass extinction, not 6th

Earth is currently in the midst of a mass extinction, losing thousands of species each year. New research suggests environmental changes caused the first such event in history, which occurred millions of years earlier than scientists previously realized. Read more.
By Jules Bernstein | | Paleontology, Paleobiology, Paleoecology
Ancient sea creature roaming sea floor

Tiniest Ever Ancient Seawater Pockets Revealed

Trapped for millennia, the tiniest liquid remnants of an ancient inland sea have now been revealed. The surprising discovery of seawater sealed in what is now North America for 390 million years opens up a new avenue for understanding how oceans change and adapt with changing climate. Read more.
By Jules Bernstein | | Sedimentary Geochemistry & Organic Geochemistry
The sun and planet in space

Discovery could dramatically narrow search for space creatures

An Earth-like planet orbiting an M dwarf — the most common type of star in the universe — appears to have no atmosphere at all. This discovery could cause a major shift in the search for life on other planets. Read more.
By Jules Bernstein | | Astrobiology
Broccoli in front of purple background

Broccoli gas: a better way to find life in space

"Broccoli, along with other plants and microorganisms, emit gases to help them expel toxins. Scientists believe these gases could provide compelling evidence of life on other planets. These types of gases are made when organisms add a carbon and three hydrogen atoms to an undesirable chemical element. This process, called methylation, can turn potential toxins...
By Jules Bernstein | | Astrobiology
Solar System and planets

Laughing gas in space could mean life

"Scientists at UC Riverside are suggesting something is missing from the typical roster of chemicals that astrobiologists use to search for life on planets around other stars — laughing gas. Chemical compounds in a planet’s atmosphere that could indicate life, called biosignatures, typically include gases found in abundance in Earth’s atmosphere today." Read more.
By Jules Bernstein | | Astrobiology
Crack in the earth

Massive Mexican earthquakes warn Southern Californians

"A pair of massive earthquakes in Mexico — 7.6 on Sept. 19 and 6.8 on Sept. 22 — have some in Southern California on edge, wondering whether the Golden State is next. Here, UC Riverside seismologist Abhijit Ghosh weighs in on the likelihood of more shakers, and how to prepare for them. Ghosh is an...
By Jules Bernstein | | Earthquakes & Geophysics
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