Earth and Cosmos

Unraveling Planetary Secrets and Cosmic Mysteries in 2025

Our planet and the universe are engaged in a continuous dialogue, where discoveries about Earth reshape our understanding of cosmic processes, and space exploration reveals fundamental truths about our home.

2025 Scientific Review

This year has brought unprecedented insights—from Earth's molten heart to distant exoplanets and the fabric of spacetime itself.

Groundbreaking Discoveries on Earth and Beyond

Recent findings are rewriting textbooks across scientific disciplines, revealing a dynamic planet within an even more dynamic universe.

Earth's Hidden Rhythms

  • Liquid Inner Core: Seismic data shows Earth's inner core isn't a solid metal ball. Geophysicists discovered liquid iron alloys swirling within it, altering models of Earth's magnetic field 1 .
  • Greenland's Ice Quakes: Volcanic impurities beneath Greenland's ice streams trigger sudden jerks followed by stillness, accelerating ice melt 1 .
  • Deadly Heat Expansion: Regions experiencing unsurvivable heat/humidity will triple if global warming hits 2°C above preindustrial levels 1 .

Cosmic Enigmatics

  • Dark Energy's Grip: 68.3–70% of the universe is dark energy, an unknown force accelerating cosmic expansion 6 .
  • Exoplanet Diversity: Over 100 new exoplanets discovered in 2025 include:
    • BD+05 4868 Ab: A Mercury-sized world with a 5.5-million-mile-long tail of vaporized rock 8
    • WASP-127b: A gas giant with winds roaring at 20,500 mph 8
    • YSES-1b/c: Young gas giants surrounded by moon-forming dust disks 8

2025 Earth Science Breakthroughs

Discovery Location/Scope Impact
Partially Liquid Inner Core Earth's interior Revises planetary formation models
Volcanic Ice Quakes Greenland ice streams Improves sea-level rise forecasts
Heat Zone Expansion Global (e.g., Thailand) Informs climate resilience planning

The ALICE Experiment: Decoding Cosmic Rain

How do we study particles from the edge of the universe? The ALICE collaboration at CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) turned its detector toward cosmic rays to solve the "muon puzzle"—why more cosmic muons reach Earth than models predict 2 .

Methodology: Capturing Cosmic Messengers

  1. Location: ALICE sits 52 meters underground, shielded by 28 meters of rock and 1 meter of iron to filter non-muon particles 2 .
  2. Data Collection: From 2015–2018, during LHC beam pauses, ALICE recorded:
    • 165 million events with ≥1 muon
    • 15,702 high-multiplicity events (≥4 muons)
    • Total observation: 62.5 days (2× longer than prior campaigns) 2
  3. Analysis: Muon "multiplicity" was compared against simulations assuming primary cosmic rays of pure hydrogen or iron. Energy ranges: 4–60 petaelectronvolts (PeV) 2 .

Results and Significance

  • Muon Excess Confirmed: ALICE detected up to 50 muons per event consistently, with rare events exceeding 100 muons 2 .
  • High-Energy Clues: Events with >100 muons suggest primary cosmic rays averaging 100 PeV—energy levels linked to supernovae or active galactic nuclei 2 .

ALICE Cosmic Muon Detection (2015–2018)

Event Type Number Recorded Primary Cosmic Ray Energy Key Insight
All muon events 165,000,000+ 4–60 PeV Confirms excess muons
High-multiplicity (≥4) 15,702 10–100 PeV Heavy nuclei (e.g., iron) dominate
Extreme (>100) ~50 ~100 PeV Tied to cataclysmic cosmic events

The Scientist's Toolkit: Probing Cosmic and Earthly Phenomena

Key instruments and methods driving 2025 research:

Essential Research Reagent Solutions

Tool/Technology Function Example Use Case
Seismic Arrays Maps subsurface vibrations Detecting inner core liquefaction 1
James Webb Space Telescope Analyzes exoplanet atmospheres Studying Hycean worlds like K2-18b 8
Quantum Gravity Sensors Measures spacetime fluctuations Testing universe-origin theories 9
DiRAC Data Systems Manages astronomical datasets Processing 30 trillion sky observations 7
Spectrographs Splits light to identify compositions Confirming exoplanet tails (e.g., BD+05 4868 Ab) 8

Paradigm Shifts: Rethinking the Universe's Origins

A radical 2025 theory challenges cosmic inflation—the idea that the universe expanded exponentially in its first moments. Led by Raúl Jiménez (University of Barcelona), researchers propose:

  1. No "Inflaton" Field Needed: Quantum fluctuations in gravitational waves (not hypothetical particles) seeded early density variations 9 .
  2. De Sitter Space Validation: The model starts with this well-established dark-energy-friendly state, avoiding untestable assumptions 9 .
  3. Testable Predictions: Upcoming gravitational wave detectors (e.g., LISA) and 3D dark matter maps from the Roman Telescope (2027) could confirm this 6 9 .

Future Frontiers: Missions to Watch

Moon Industrialization

NASA's CLPS missions (e.g., Firefly's $176M rover delivery) will test lunar oxygen extraction in 2025 3 4 .

Asteroid Sample Returns

China's Tianwen-2 (May 2025) aims to collect samples from asteroid Kamoʻoalewa—possibly a moon fragment 4 .

Dark Energy Hunters

The Euclid mission (ESA/NASA) and Nancy Grace Roman Telescope (2027) will map dark matter's role in cosmic acceleration 6 .

Earth and cosmos are intertwined in a dance of discovery, where each revelation—whether about our planet's core or a muon shower—brings us closer to understanding our place in the universe. As sensors sharpen and models evolve, 2025 reminds us that the universe's greatest secrets are still written in the language of gravity, quantum ripples, and the light of dying stars.

References