The carbon dioxide in Earth's early atmosphere could have been turned into oxygen by intense UV light as well as by photosynthesis. Earth's atmosphere wasn't always full of life-giving oxygen — it was ...

Scientists have discovered a new way oxygen can form in carbon-dioxide-rich atmospheres of worlds beyond our own —- challenging assumptions about how we should search for life on other planets, and ...

Were humans to one day make it to Mars, one of the problems we’d need to have solved long in advance is how to produce necessities like fuel and drugs without having to take them there ourselves. One ...

Graphene is an appealing material for gas filtration because it is extremely strong, stable and incredibly thin. In its ...

A startling discovery puts a new twist on photosynthesis, arguably the most important biological process on Earth. Two studies suggest that certain widespread marine microorganisms have evolved a way ...

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has detected a very tenuous atmosphere known as an exosphere, infused with oxygen and carbon dioxide around Saturn's icy moon Rhea. This is the first time a spacecraft has ...

Earth's atmosphere wasn't always full of life-giving oxygen — it was once a choking mixture of carbon dioxide and other gases, more like the atmosphere of Mars or Venus. It's widely believed that the ...