"Without Mars, Earth's orbit would be missing major climate cycles. What would humans and other animals even look like if Mars weren't there?"

Although 2025 did not set a new global temperature record, it still delivered clear signs of a warming planet.

A Pew Research poll shows partisan split over U.S. scientific leadership, with Democrats far more concerned about losing ground than Republicans.

In the bigger picture, "down" could be defined as being below the plane of the solar system, which is known as the ecliptic. By convention, we say that above the plane is where the planets are seen to orbit counterclockwise around the Sun, and from below they are seen to orbit clockwise.

Exoplanets like Earth have been discovered but not all Earth-like planets are equal when it comes to alien life.

Earth’s deep interior may hold water equal to today’s oceans, challenging long-held views of how the planet became habitable.

Trump’s push to break that chokepoint is lifting rare-earths startups. Phoenix Tailings, a startup focused on recycling mining byproducts into rare-earth minerals, added $33 million to its Series B in 2025, bringing its funding round total to $76 million.

Scientists observing it say its origin is unclear, but their theories about how it formed suggest it could hint at the Earth's future. The first theory is the cloud may have forme