Some 4.6 billion years ago, Earth was nothing like the gentle blue planet we know today. Frequent and violent celestial ...

When the early Earth’s magma ocean crystallized 4.4 billion years ago, the deep mantle trapped an ocean’s worth of water, ...

Fresh evidence suggests early Earth wasn’t locked under a rigid stagnant lid but was already experiencing intense subduction.

Researchers say they have uncovered evidence that early Earth was home to more hydrogen than previously thought, calling into question widely held beliefs about the origins of water and the evolution ...

Abiotic chemistry in Earth’s atmosphere could have generated biologically important organosulfur molecules as life was ...

IMAGE: A new study by CU-Boulder researchers indicates a thick organic haze shrouding Earth several billion years ago was similar to the one now hovering over Saturn’s largest moon, Titan. University ...

Scientists have discovered that complex life began evolving much earlier than traditional models suggested. Using an expanded ...

Researchers have made a new discovery that changes our understanding of Earth's early geological history, challenging beliefs about how our continents formed and when plate tectonics began. A study ...

MADISON – Reading the telltale chemical signature of a mineral sample determined to be the world’s oldest known terrestrial material, scientists have reconstructed a portrait that suggests the early ...

Maybe the first life on Earth was part of an 'RNA world.' Artur Plawgo/Science Photo Library via Getty Images How life on Earth started has puzzled scientists for a long time. And it still does.

According to a new study, Earth’s atmosphere might have been more important for the origin of life story than we gave it ...

Surface-bound gels may have offered the structure and chemistry needed for life to take hold on Earth—and possibly elsewhere.