Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences

Max Collinet PhD ’19 and Professor Tim Grove work together to extract an experimental sample from a one-of-a-kind rock-melting machine at MIT that reveals clues about planetesimals and the formation of the rocky planets like Earth and Mars.

When baby planets melt

MIT scientists identify first magmas generated in solar system’s building blocks, unexpectedly answering questions about meteorites and formation of rocky planets.

May 7, 2020

To ensure the best coverage of our solar system, MIT Assistant Professor Richard Linares envisions a constellation of "statites" that communicate and work together, only activating the statite in the optimum position to fly by or rendezvous with an interstellar object successfully. Other statites in the constellation can continue to wait for the next ISO to appear.

To catch an interstellar visitor, use a solar-powered space slingshot

MIT research proposal for rendezvous missions with interstellar objects selected for NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts Program.

May 6, 2020

MIT climate scientist Kerry Emanuel has been elected a foreign member of the Royal Society.

Kerry Emanuel elected a Royal Society foreign member

Professor of atmospheric science honored for his work on atmospheric physics and dynamics of tropical weather patterns.

May 6, 2020

New research suggests that next-generation telescopes might look first for hydrogen atmospheres, as hydrogen can be a viable, easily detectable biosignature of life.

Study: Life might survive, and thrive, in a hydrogen world

When searching for extraterrestrial life, astronomers may want to look at planets with hydrogen-rich atmospheres.

May 4, 2020

Abhijit Banerjee, Bonnie Berger, and Roger Summons (left to right) are new members of the National Academy of Sciences.

Three from MIT elected to the National Academy of Sciences for 2020

Faculty members Abhijit Banerjee, Bonnie Berger, and Roger Summons elected by peers for outstanding contributions to research.

May 1, 2020

Studying science has made her a better historian, Charlotte Minsky says. And studying history has made her a better scientist.

Meet the MIT bilinguals: Dual history and planetary science major Charlotte Minsky

Studying history has made her a better planetary scientist, Minsky says. And studying science has made her a better historian.

April 28, 2020

This visualization shows the magnetic field around Earth, or the magnetosphere. Earth’s magnetic field origins are still a mystery, a new MIT study finds.

Origins of Earth’s magnetic field remain a mystery

The existence of a magnetic field beyond 3.5 billion years ago is still up for debate.

April 8, 2020

Samuel Birch joins MIT as a recipient of this year’s Heising-Simons Foundation 51 Pegasi b Fellowship.

Titan’s missing river deltas and an Earthly climate connection

Samuel Birch, a new Heising-Simons Foundation 51 Pegasi b Fellow at MIT, will investigate the surfaces of outer solar system objects.

April 8, 2020

Humpback whales have seen a major rebound in numbers, thanks to conservation efforts, from a few hundred left in the 1970s to tens of thousands at present.

3 Questions: Greg Britten on how marine life can recover by 2050

Committing to aggressive conservation efforts could rebuild ocean habitats and species populations in a few decades.

April 3, 2020

Five MIT Space Exploration Initiative payloads are enclosed within the Nanoracks BlackBox platform, further encased in a sample ISS experiment rack containment box, shown here in preflight testing for launch to the International Space Station in March.

Five MIT payloads deployed on the International Space Station

A cohort of transdisciplinary researchers will study the effects of sustained microgravity.

March 25, 2020

MIT joins a consortium of supercomputing resources to help speed the search for Covid-19 solutions.

MIT joins White House supercomputing effort to speed up search for Covid-19 solutions

Consortium includes industry, government, and academic institutions.

March 23, 2020

This visualization shows the Gulf Stream's sea surface currents and and temperatures.

Staring into the vortex

MIT researchers describe factors governing how oceans and atmospheres move heat around on Earth and other planetary bodies.

March 19, 2020

MIT researchers have found that much of the current emission of CFC-11 and CFC-12 likely stems from large CFC “banks” — old equipment such as building insulation foam, refrigerators and cooling systems, and foam insulation, that was manufactured before the global phaseout of CFCs and is still leaking the gases into the atmosphere.

Emissions of several ozone-depleting chemicals are larger than expected

Recovering and safely destroying the sources of these chemicals could speed ozone recovery and reduce climate change.

March 17, 2020

School of Science announces 2020 Infinite Mile Awards

Ten staff members recognized for dedication to School of Science and to MIT.

March 16, 2020

On Maui (shown here) and Hawaii’s other islands, MIT researchers find that the rate of coastal erosion depends on the size of the average wave.

Scientists quantify how wave power drives coastal erosion

The average power of waves hitting a coastline can predict how fast that coast will erode.