Analysis
|
Open Access
Featured
-
-
News |
The Moon is rusting — thanks to ‘wind’ blown all the way from Earth
Lunar minerals generate the rust mineral haematite when bombarded with high-energy oxygen particles, experiments show.
- Alexandra Witze
-
Nature Podcast |
Feeling the heat: fossil-fuel producers linked to dozens of heatwaves
Attribution study suggests major energy producers play an outsized role in causing extreme heatwaves — plus, the scientists fighting back against US funding cuts.
- Benjamin Thompson
- & Shamini Bundell
-
Article |
Late fluid flow in a primitive asteroid revealed by Lu–Hf isotopes in Ryugu
Analysis of samples from the asteroid Ryugu provide evidence of late fluid flow in a carbonaceous asteroid, indicating that such bodies may have retained two to three times more water than previously thought.
- Tsuyoshi Iizuka
- , Takazo Shibuya
- & Hisayoshi Yurimoto
-
News & Views |
Mystery Martian minerals hint at the planet’s complex geochemical past
The Perseverance rover on Mars has observed unusual minerals associated with organic matter — raising questions about the geochemistry of ancient Mars.
- Janice L. Bishop
- & Mario Parente
-
Article
| Open Access
Redox-driven mineral and organic associations in Jezero Crater, Mars
A geological, petrographic and geochemical survey of distinctive mudstone and conglomerate outcrops of the Bright Angel formation on Mars reveals textures, chemical and mineral characteristics, and organic signatures that warrant consideration as potential biosignatures.
- Joel A. Hurowitz
- , M. M. Tice
- & Z. U. Wolf
-
Research Highlight |
Changing tides ushered in the world’s first civilization
Construction of tidal irrigation systems helped to drive the formation of city states some 5,000 years ago.
-
News & Views |
Marsquakes indicate that the inner core of the red planet is solid, not liquid
An analysis of seismic waves propagating through Mars finds evidence that the planet has a small, solid inner core, which challenges existing planetary models.
- Nicholas C. Schmerr
-
Article
| Open Access
Seismic detection of a 600-km solid inner core in Mars
An analysis of seismic data acquired by the InSight mission demonstrates that Mars has a 600-km solid inner core.
- Huixing Bi
- , Daoyuan Sun
- & Douglas Hemingway
-
Article
| Open Access
A prudent planetary limit for geologic carbon storage
A risk-based, spatially explicit analysis of carbon storage in sedimentary basins establishes a prudent planetary limit of around 1,460 Gt of geological carbon storage, which requires making explicit decisions on priorities for storage use.
- Matthew J. Gidden
- , Siddharth Joshi
- & Joeri Rogelj
-
Editorial |
Hazardous science that helps to save and improve lives needs more support
Research into the growing environmental problem of urban gullies highlights the challenging conditions under which many socially important studies are done.
-
Article |
Two-billion-year transitional oxygenation of the Earth’s surface
A 2.5-billion-year record of oxygen isotopes in sedimentary sulfate reveals the transitional oxygenation of the Earth’s surface and provides constraints on the dynamic, lengthy co-oxygenation of Earth’s atmosphere and oceans.
- Haiyang Wang
- , Chao Li
- & Huiming Bao
-
Article |
Silicate precursor silane detected in cold low-metallicity brown dwarf
Silane, which is a precursor to the sandy surfaces of rocky planets and dusty clouds on gas giants, is seen directly in another world—a low-metallicity brown dwarf in which oxidation is slow and gas mixing is fast.
- Jacqueline K. Faherty
- , Aaron M. Meisner
- & Eduardo L. Martin
-
-
Research Briefing |
Many planets might be born with orbits misaligned from the spin of their stars
An analysis of the geometry of young Sun-like stars with planet-forming disks, measured by ground- and space-based observatories, shows that at least one-third of disks are misaligned with the spin of their central star. This distribution of star–disk configurations seeds the later diversity of planetary system architectures.
-
Research Briefing |
A humidity measure that accounts for redistribution of water across the landscape
A humidity index has been developed that considers lateral flow along rivers and groundwater systems, as well as precipitation, potential evaporation and plant transpiration. It performs better than a conventional humidity index when describing water availability for ecosystems and societies in arid regions.
-
News |
Watch rappelling robots dive into a lava tube — for science
Test run shows how a team of three autonomous robots could search for extraterrestrial environments suitable for sheltering humans.
- Davide Castelvecchi
-
News & Views |
Impact of catastrophic flood might have been exacerbated by river-management programme
Efforts to engineer a river to reduce flood risk might have unintentionally contributed to severe erosion of the riverbed, worsening the impact of the flood.
- Alvise Finotello
-
Article
| Open Access
One-third of Sun-like stars are born with misaligned planet-forming disks
Assessment of the stellar obliquities of a sample of resolved protoplanetary disk systems indicates that one-third of Sun-like stars are born with misaligned planet-forming disks, suggesting that the origin of star–planet configurations, including many misaligned planetary orbits, may be primordial.
- Lauren I. Biddle
- , Brendan P. Bowler
- & Ya-Lin Wu
-
Nature Careers Podcast |
Why I co-developed a research career launchpad for first generation students
Arezoo Khodayari and a colleague at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory provide paid internships aimed at under-represented groups in science.
- Dom Byrne
-
Research Briefing |
Changes in Mars’s habitability could have been driven by carbonate formation and transient oases
Mars has had periods of potential habitability, seen in its geological record of surface water and shallow groundwater. Models that incorporate feedback between carbon sequestration, atmospheric pressure and temperature — backed by discoveries of carbonates by NASA’s Curiosity rover — suggest that this intermittent habitability could have arisen through self-regulating feedback loops on the planet’s surface.
-
News |
‘We dissent’: NASA staff declare opposition to Trump cuts
Space-agency declaration of dissent and NSF petition join similar documents from staff at the EPA and the NIH.
- Alexandra Witze
-
News |
Google tapped billions of mobile phones to detect quakes worldwide — and send alerts
Study reveals how the tech behemoth is using the motions sensors on phones to expand quake warnings to more countries.
- Jeff Tollefson
-
Article |
Refractory solid condensation detected in an embedded protoplanetary disk
Observations at infrared and millimetre wavelengths of the young protostar HOPS-315 show a gaseous disk captured at the point at which solids are first starting to condense, the t = 0 for planet formation.
- M. K. McClure
- , Merel van’t Hoff
- & E. Dartois
-
Research Briefing |
Star flares when an orbiting planet gets too close
A planet that orbits closely to its young host star has been observed to induce large magnetic eruptions on the star. These flares might rapidly blow away the planet’s atmosphere, leaving behind a dense core within a few hundred million years.
-
News |
Birth of a solar system caught ‘on camera’ for first time
Astronomers get rare glimpse of earliest stages of planet formation around a baby star.
- Jenna Ahart
-
News & Views |
First returned rock samples shine a light on the Moon’s ‘dark side’
Soil samples from the far side of the Moon provide clues about the origin of lunar asymmetry and the effects of ‘mega-basin’ impacts on the evolution of rocky planets
- Stephen M. Elardo
-
Article
| Open Access
Ultra-depleted mantle source of basalts from the South Pole–Aitken basin
Extreme Sr��Nd depletion in 2.8-billion-year-old basalt fragments from the lunar farside South Pole–Aitken basin suggests an ultra-depleted mantle source resulting from lunar magma ocean crystallization and/or later impact-related melt extraction.
- Qin Zhou
- , Wei Yang
- & Fu-Yuan Wu
-
Comment |
How to chart a moral future for space exploration
Expanding human influence in outer space will require an ethical compass that is more expansive than the one conventionally used.
- Chelsea Haramia
- , Émilie A. Laflèche
- & Michael L. Wong
-
News |
Rare find: interstellar visitor seen blazing through our Solar System
The comet-like body — called 3I/ATLAS or C/2025 N1 — is zipping past Jupiter.
- Nicola Jones
-
Article
| Open Access
Carbonate formation and fluctuating habitability on Mars
A modelling study suggests that Mars had a desert-like climate with intermittent liquid-water oases regulated by a negative feedback among solar luminosity, liquid water and carbonate formation.
- Edwin S. Kite
- , Benjamin M. Tutolo
- & Daniel Y. Zhou
-
Article
| Open Access
Evidence for a sub-Jovian planet in the young TWA 7 disk
Using the James Webb Space Telescope's Mid-Infrared Instrument, a study reports evidence for a direct detection of a cold, sub-Jupiter-mass planet in the disk of the star TWA 7.
- A.-M. Lagrange
- , C. Wilkinson
- & M. Langlois
-
Research Briefing |
Liquid carbon formed using a high-energy laser
Using pulses of an ultrabright X-ray free-electron laser, the structure of liquid carbon was determined at pressures exceeding one million atmospheres and temperatures of around 7,000 kelvin. This approach revealed a complex fluid with a water-like structure and an average of four neighbouring atoms around each central carbon atom.
-
Research Briefing |
Seasonality dominates changes in lake-surface extent and aligns with human residence
The mapping of lake surfaces globally has been constrained by the limitations of single-source satellite data. A spatio-temporal fusion approach now enables high-resolution mapping of more than 1.4 million lakes, revealing seasonality as the main factor driving changes in the spread of lake surfaces, with links between seasonality and human residence.
-
Research Highlight |
Solved: the mystery of the evaporating planet
An intimate look at a puffy exoplanet and its nearest star has revealed its tragic destiny.
-
News & Views |
Ancient carbon released through modern rivers
A global analysis reveals that most carbon dioxide emitted by rivers derives not from modern plant material, as was thought, but from ancient, buried carbon.
- Li Li
-
News |
Trump wants to put humans on Mars — here’s what scientists think
Nature explores the massive costs and challenges of sending astronauts to the red planet.
- Alexandra Witze
-
Book Review |
The polar regions hold crucial scientific secrets — and the time to study them is running out
The poles hold 70% of Earth’s fresh water and are crucial to science; what’s unfolding there as the planet warms deserves greater attention.
- Marc Macias-Fauria
-
Review Article |
The shaping of terrestrial planets by late accretions
Differences in the role of late accretion in the long-term evolution of terrestrial planets are shown to possibly lead to distinct geophysical and chemical properties, as well as pathways conducive to prebiotic chemistry.
- Simone Marchi
- & Jun Korenaga
-
News |
First Chinese mission to sample an asteroid starts its journey
Over a decade, Tianwen-2 will sample rocks from a near-Earth asteroid, return them to Earth and then visit a comet.
- Smriti Mallapaty
-
Article |
Dating the evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis using La-Ce geochronology
138La-138Ce geochronology shows that La/Ce fractionation, and Ce oxidation, occurred at the time of deposition, placing the origin of oxygenic photosynthesis in the Mesoarchaean or earlier.
- Laureline A. Patry
- , Pierre Bonnand
- & Stefan V. Lalonde
-
News & Views |
How and when North America’s deepest river gorge formed
An analysis of landscape features and of river deposits preserved in caves point to an event 2.1 million years ago that triggered the formation of Hells Canyon.
- Andrew Mitchinson
-
Article |
A retrograde planet in a tight binary star system with a white dwarf
A planet in a retrograde orbit around a star with a close-in white dwarf companion reveals the role of binary stellar evolution in the formation and evolution of planets.
- Ho Wan Cheng
- , Trifon Trifonov
- & Andreas Quirrenbach
-
Article
| Open Access
The structure of liquid carbon elucidated by in situ X-ray diffraction
A precise structure measurement of liquid carbon at pressures of around 1 million atmospheres obtained by in situ X-ray diffraction at an X-ray free-electron laser shows a complex fluid with transient bonding and approximately four nearest neighbours on average.
- D. Kraus
- , J. Rips
- & M. I. McMahon
-
Article
| Open Access
Ru and W isotope systematics in ocean island basalts reveals core leakage
Ru isotopes are proposed as tracers for core–mantle interaction on Earth, and anomalies for ocean island basalts from Hawaii are reported that have higher ε100Ru than the ambient mantle.
- Nils Messling
- , Matthias Willbold
- & Dennis Geist
-
Article
| Open Access
Thermal asymmetry in the Moon’s mantle inferred from monthly tidal response
Data from the NASA GRAIL spacecraft recover the lunar gravity field suggesting preservation of a predominantly thermal anomaly in the nearside mantle, which could influence the spatial distribution of deep moonquakes.
- R. S. Park
- , A. Berne
- & R. C. Weber
-
Article |
Water ice in the debris disk around HD 181327
The James Webb Space Telescope has detected water ice in the cold debris disk (analogous to the Kuiper belt) around the star HD 181327.
- Chen Xie
- , Christine H. Chen
- & Jarron M. Leisenring
-
News & Views |
Where do comets come from?
The interstellar origins of space’s dirty snowballs, and debunking a myth about maternal crustaceans, in our weekly dip into Nature’s archive.
-
News |
AI scientist ‘team’ joins the search for extraterrestrial life
The collaborative system generated more than 100 hypotheses relating to the origins of life in the Universe.
- Celeste Biever
-
Doughnut of social and planetary boundaries monitors a world out of balanceBrowse broader subjects
Browse narrower subjects
- Asteroids, comets and Kuiper belt
- Astrobiology
- Atmospheric chemistry
- Atmospheric dynamics
- Core processes
- Cryospheric science
- Early solar system
- Exoplanets
- Geochemistry
- Geodynamics
- Geomorphology
- Giant planets
- Hydrology
- Inner planets
- Meteoritics
- Mineralogy
- Petrology
- Rings and moons
- Seismology
- Structural geology
- Tectonics
- Volcanology