There's a link between Earth's ocean salinity and its climate. Salinity can have a dramatic effect on the climate of any Earth-like planet orbiting a sun-like star. But what about exoplanets around ...

Deep under Europa’s thick icy surface lies an ocean larger than all of Earth’s oceans combined. But it’s pretty useless way ...

Scientists at Yale and in Singapore have devised what may be the ultimate acid test — a comprehensive model for estimating the origins of Earth’s habitability, based in part on ocean acidity. The new ...

Scientists have uncovered a surprising connection between Earth's opposite poles that may help explain how the planet plunged ...

Earth is retaining more energy than it releases, with oceans absorbing most excess heat. Scientists combine ocean and satellite measurements to carefully track this imbalance.

Several key moments in Earth's history help us humans answer the question "How did we get here?" These moments also shed light on the question "Where are we going?" and offer scientists deeper insight ...

In order to determine whether hydrothermal vents could be occurring on any of the ocean moons, the researchers used a complex computer model. The model is based on hydrothermal circulation on Earth.

3.8 billion years ago, when the Earth’s temperature cooled down, rain fell for centuries. Oceans formed. Longer than human history, the creation of oceans—all this water that we can float on, fly over ...

The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. Prochlorococcus bacteria are so small that you’d have to line up around a thousand of them to match the thickness of a human thumbnail.