Earth and atmospheric sciences

In honor of the 25^th anniversary of the International Space Station (ISS), Earth.com reporter Derek Davis spotlights the contributions of a number of MIT-trained astronauts and engineers, who played pivotal roles in the ISS’ history. 

Researchers at MIT have uncovered remnants of “proto Earth,” which existed before a Mars-sized meteorite slammed into the Earth billions of years ago, reports Gayoung Lee for Gizmodo. The researchers “found an odd imbalance of potassium isotopes in ancient rock samples,” explains Lee. “Chemical analyses revealed the anomaly couldn’t have emerged from any known geological processes on modern Earth.” 

Using molecular evidence buried in rocks, researchers at MIT suggest that some of the Earth’s first living creatures are ancestors of the modern sea sponge, reports Ashley Fike for Vice. “The discovery suggests the earliest animals were simple, filter-feeding organisms that slowly cleaned the seas while the rest of the evolution was still figuring itself out,” says Fike. “These early sponges likely had no skeletons, nerves, or eyes – just porous bodies that absorbed water and nutrients. Yet they paved the way for everything that came next, from insects to mammals to us.” 

A new study by MIT researchers suggests sea sponges may have been the “first animals to inhabit the Earth,” reports Maria Azzura Volpe for Newsweek. “In their work, the researchers linked so-called ‘chemical fossils’ found in ancient rocks to the ancestors of a class of modern-day sea sponges known as demosponges,” explains Volpe. “These chemical fossils—the molecular remnants of once-living organisms that have been buried, transformed, and preserved in sediment over time—were discovered in rocks that date back to more than 541 million years ago, during the Ediacaran Period.” 

MIT researchers have uncovered new evidence that suggests some of Earth’s first living creatures are ancestors of the modern sea sponge, reports Andrew Paul for Popular Science. The researchers identified 541 million-year-old chemical fossils embedded in sediment that they believe may indicate that some of Earth’s earliest creatures were the ancient relatives of today’s sea sponges. 

Researchers at MIT have found that up to 98% of the energy produced by an earthquake dissipates as heat, reports Stephanie Pappas for Scientific American, who notes that the findings could be used to help create better earthquake forecasts. The researchers “created itty-bitty lab earthquakes by pressing centimeter-sized wafers of a powdered granite and magnetic particle mixture between aluminum pistons until the wafers slipped or snapped,” explains Pappas. “They measured this process of cracking under stress with thermometers and piezoelectric sensors that mimic the seismographs used to measure real earthquakes.” 

Researchers at MIT have created “a series of miniature, controlled versions of real earthquakes to see where all that destructive energy actually goes and what it’s doing,” reports Luis Prada for Vice. “The goal of the research is to isolate the key physical processes that underlie every earthquake,” explains Prada. “The hope is that any knowledge gained will help refine earthquake prediction models and possibly even pinpoint which regions are sitting on fault lines ready to pop.” 

Gizmodo reporter Gayoung Lee writes that MIT researchers created “lab quakes” or miniature versions of earthquakes in a controlled setting and found that “anywhere between 68 and 98% of the energy goes into generating heat around a quake’s epicenter.” The findings “could help inform the creation of a physical model for earthquake dynamics or seismologists’ efforts to pick out regions most vulnerable to earthquakes.”

Prof. Richard Binzel spoke at the Europlanet Science Congress (EPSC) about efforts to create a system that could help deflect deadly asteroids away from Earth, reports Alex Wilkins for New Scientist. “If we had to deal with an actual asteroid threat,” says Binzel, “we would certainly want to know these properties, like the spin or tumbling state [of an asteroid].”

Prof. Kerri Cahoy takes Bloomberg Wall Street Week host David Westin on an out-of-this-world journey into how a college internship inspired her research on space and satellites, why she loves the challenge of satellite engineering, and what she sees in store for the future of the field. “There is a lot of joy and pride and skill building and challenge in the field,” says Cahoy. “That’s one of the reasons why I love it." 

Prof. Kerri Cahoy speaks with Bloomberg Wall Street Week reporter David Westin about advancements in low earth satellites. “It is very exciting to see it growing like this," says Cahoy. "To see remote access without terrestrial infrastructure needed, that is a very interesting and exciting growth area." 

Writing for Physics Today, Prof. Camilla Cattania and her colleagues highlight the impact of big data and AI advancements in improving the reliability of earthquake forecasting and prediction. “Advances in technology and data analysis, particularly the incorporation of AI techniques, are driving the development of more-sophisticated forecasting models,” they write. “Advances in sensor technology and the expansion of dense seismic networks are providing new insight into the dynamics of Earth’s crust. That wealth of data enables the creation of more detailed and nuanced forecasting models that better capture the complexities of earthquake processes.”

Guy Consolmagno '74, SM '75, director of the Vatican Observatory, speaks with Rebecca Mead of The New Yorker about his journey from suburban Detroit to MIT to his current role as the Pope’s Astronomer, and the intersection between science and religion. “If people think you have to be a weird kind of scientist to be religious, or a weird kind of religious to be a scientist, then we’ve missed the point,” says Consolmagno. “The point is that our faith—our ordinary faith—fits perfectly with our ordinary, but wonderful, delightful science.” 

A study by researchers at MIT and elsewhere has proposed an alternative scenario to how life survived “Snowball Earth,” a “super ice age that froze the entire planet from poles to the equator” during the Cryogenian period, reports David Bressan for Forbes. “The scientists found that lifeforms could have survived the global freeze by thriving in watery oases on the surface,” explains Bressan.

A study by Prof. Noelle Selin has found that climate change will impact our ability to curb smoke and smog pollutants, reports Vivian La for WBUR. The researchers “used computer models to predict how air pollution will develop in the Eastern United States over the next few decades,” explains La. Selin underscored the importance of policies that reduce air pollution noting that: “what we’re doing to the atmosphere has impacts and it’s important not to roll these back.”