Breathing quickly in the thin mountain air, my colleagues and I set down our equipment. We’re at the base of a jagged outcrop that protrudes upwards out of a steep gravel slope. The muffled soundscape ...

Where did the moon's magnetism go? Scientists have puzzled over this question for decades, ever since orbiting spacecraft picked up signs of a high magnetic field in lunar surface rocks. The moon ...

Unlike Earth, the Moon doesn't have much of a magnetic field – and yet, a strange pile of rocks on the far side seems mysteriously magnetized. A new study suggests that a major cataclysm, over and ...

Without plate tectonics, our planet wouldn’t have continents, mountains, and possibly even life itself. New evidence suggests this geological process began at least 3.2 billion years ago, a ...

NASA and the United States Geological Survey (USGS) are teaming up to create one of the most complete databases of magnetic properties of Earth's rocks ever assembled. The partnership demonstrates ...

NASA’s Apollo missions brought back moon rock samples for scientists to study. We’ve learned a great deal over the ensuing decades, but one enduring mystery remains. Many of those lunar samples show ...

Geologists at MIT and Oxford University have found ancient rocks in Greenland that bear the oldest remnants of Earth’s early magnetic field. The researchers determined that the rocks are about 3.7 ...

Surrounding Earth is a powerful magnetic field created by swirling liquid iron in the planet’s core. Earth’s magnetic field may be nearly as old as the Earth itself – and stands in stark contrast to ...

Where did the moon’s magnetism go? Scientists have puzzled over this question for decades, ever since orbiting spacecraft picked up signs of a high magnetic field in lunar surface rocks. The moon ...