Earth's Atmosphere

In what appears to be a historic first, a chicken sandwich was successfully carried to the edge of space today aboard a high-altitude balloon.

One of the still-unsolved mysteries about Earth's history is how the planet became breathable. Now, scientists say the culprit may have been the giant rock slabs that make up Earth's outer shell.

In an unexpected first, researchers have discovered ammonia in the troposphere, Earth's lowest atmospheric layer, a new study finds.

Atmospheric oxygen levels have declined over the past 1 million years, although not nearly enough to trigger any major problems for life on Earth, a new study finds.

Weird radio echoes that appear at dawn every day over an observatory in Peru have long baffled scientists, until now.

The oldest space dust yet found on Earth suggests that the ancient atmosphere of Earth had significantly more oxygen than previously thought, a new study finds.

The mysterious disappearance of electrons in the atmosphere could be caused by meteors burning up in the sky, new research suggests.

Earth's magnetic field, which protects the planet from harmful blasts of solar radiation, is much older than scientists had previously thought, researchers say.

Huge wildfires sparked by a powerful El Niño event 16 years ago left a distinct tinge of sulfur in Antarctica's snow.