Earth and atmospheric sciences

This image shows free-air gravitational anomalies and a shaded topographic relief of the Moon’s 930-km-diameter Orientale impact basin. Red corresponds to mass excesses and blue to mass deficits relative to a reference value. This gravitational field model, based on measurements acquired from the NASA GRAIL mission, shows the detailed structure of the central basin depression that is filled with...

Retracing the origins of a massive, multi-ring crater

Scientists reconstruct first hours after a giant impact created one of the largest craters on the moon.

October 27, 2016

MIT research scientist Stephanie Dutkiewicz in her office with a display of her phytoplankton model simulation

Computing the ocean’s true colors

Stephanie Dutkiewicz’ phytoplankton models project the future of the ocean as food source and carbon sink.

September 15, 2016

“The ocean has been the only true sink for anthropogenic emissions since the industrial revolution,” says MIT graduate student Sophie Chu, pictured here. “Right now, it stores about 1/4 to 1/3 of the anthropogenic emissions from the atmosphere. We’re expecting at some point the storage will slow down.”

Study finds increased ocean acidification due to human activities

More anthropogenic carbon in the northeast Pacific means weaker shells for many marine species.

September 7, 2016

Collectively, piston-engine aircraft like this Cirrus SR22 constitute the nation’s largest remaining source of lead emissions.

Unfriendly skies: Piston engine aircraft pose a significant health threat

Study shows long-lasting health, economic impacts of lead emissions from U.S. general aviation flights.

August 26, 2016

Michael Floyd, a research scientist in MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, says that in developing seismic hazard assessments, it’s important to consider afterslip and slowly creeping faults, which occur often and over long periods of time following the more obvious earthquake.

2014 Napa earthquake continued to creep, weeks after main shock

Continuing seismic activity could pose additional hazards to infrastructure.

August 19, 2016

Mars’ Valles Marineris canyon, pictured, spans as much as 600 kilometers across and delves as much as 8 kilometers deep. The image was created from over 100 images of Mars taken by Viking Orbiters in the 1970s.

New technique may help detect Martian life

A novel interpretation of Raman spectra will help the 2020 Mars rover select rocks to study for signs of life.

August 15, 2016

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory is a huge, cubic-kilometer particle detector buried deep under the ice at the South Pole. After analyzing 20,000 neutrinos detected over the span of a year at the observatory, scientists were unable to observe any sign of sterile, or “hidden,” neutrinos.

Neutrino search finds no evidence of “hidden” particle

If discovered, sterile neutrinos may explain dark matter.

August 8, 2016

An artist’s depiction of planets transiting a red dwarf star in the TRAPPIST-1 System

First atmospheric study of Earth-sized exoplanets reveals rocky worlds

Two potentially habitable planets in nearby system are confirmed to be rocky.

July 20, 2016

Clusters of four or more small satellites could look at a single location on Earth from multiple angles, and measure that location’s total reflectance with an error that is half that of single satellites in operation today, an MIT-led study suggests.

Better views with smaller satellites

Batches of shoebox-sized satellites could improve estimates of Earth’s reflected energy.

July 12, 2016

Water stands between the raised beds of corn verification plot.

Gauging the impact of climate change on U.S. agriculture

New approach tracks key factors affecting crop yields, enabling early adaptation.

July 7, 2016

A simulation of the Antarctic ozone hole, made from data taken on October 22, 2015.

Scientists observe first signs of healing in the Antarctic ozone layer

September ozone hole has shrunk by 4 million square kilometers since 2000.

June 30, 2016

MIT scientists say that the Great Oxygenation Event (GOE), a period that scientists believe marked the beginning of oxygen’s permanent presence in the atmosphere, started as early as 2.33 billion years ago.

Study pinpoints timing of oxygen’s first appearance in Earth’s atmosphere

Beginning 2.33 billion years ago, atmospheric oxygen built up in just 10 million years.

May 13, 2016

A photo of the edge of the Greenland ice sheet. “With our technique, we can continuously monitor ice sheet volume changes associated with winter and summer,” Germán Prieto says.

Tracking Greenland’s ice melt with seismic waves

Technique uses vibrations generated by ocean waves to monitor ice sheet’s seasonal changes.

May 6, 2016

Higher coal use in Asia could increase water stress

Aerosol emissions would slow warming but suppress rainfall.

April 28, 2016

Colette Heald describes her current work as “trying to understand the sources, transformation, and impact of gases and particles in the atmosphere, which is very dynamic with a lot of chemical compounds that interact.”

There’s something in the air

Colette Heald studies atmospheric gases and particles, and how they affect air quality and climate.