Stephanie Pappas is a contributing writer for Space.com sister site Live Science, covering topics ranging from geoscience to archaeology to the human brain and behavior. She was previously a senior writer for Live Science but is now a freelancer based in Denver, Colorado, and regularly contributes to Scientific American and The Monitor, the monthly magazine of the American Psychological Association. Stephanie received a bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of South Carolina and a graduate certificate in science communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Latest articles by Stephanie Pappas

By Stephanie Pappas Published
The discovery that helium and iron can mix at the temperatures and pressures found at the center of Earth could settle a long-standing debate over how our planet formed.

By Stephanie Pappas Published
Newly discovered Quipu, a superstructure in which galaxies group together in clusters and clusters of clusters, is the largest known structure in the universe in terms of length, scientists claim.

By Stephanie Pappas Published
Satellite imagery from NASA and the European Space Agency reveal 13 years of melt on the Greenland Ice Sheet.

By Stephanie Pappas Published
Active volcanoes were erupting on the far side of the moon 2.8 billion years ago, the first lunar samples returned from the far side reveal. 1

By Stephanie Pappas Published
Structures that scatter seismic waves deep in Earth's mantle seem to be everywhere researchers look.

By Stephanie Pappas Published
Scientists just pulled the longest hunk of Earth's mantle from beneath the ocean.

By Stephanie Pappas Published
New research hints that plate tectonics began earlier than 4 billion years ago — not long after Earth had formed.

By Stephanie Pappas Published
An ocean that opened up in what is now Mongolia 410 million years ago was created by a hot upwelling of rock known as a mantle plume.

By Stephanie Pappas Published
An atmospheric phenomenon known as STEVE has a secret twin that appears before the break of dawn and flows in the opposite direction, new research finds.

By Stephanie Pappas Published
A vital Atlantic current that includes the Gulf Stream and keeps our climate in check may be giving off a warning sign of collapse.

By Stephanie Pappas Published
New calculations suggest the sun is a few fractions of a percent smaller than previously estimated, and that could change how we study it.

By Stephanie Pappas Published
Researchers have used a special crystal to bend the trajectory of light like a black hole would, a phenomenon known as 'pseudogravity.'

By Stephanie Pappas Published
A long-lost tectonic plate dubbed 'Pontus' that was a quarter of the size of the Pacific Ocean was discovered by chance by scientists studying ancient rocks in Borneo.

By Stephanie Pappas Published
A new ore, dubbed niobobaotite, was discovered in Inner Mongolia's Bayan Obo deposit.

By Stephanie Pappas Published
A two-peaked mountain in northeastern China is the site of the world's first confirmed mountaintop crater.

By Stephanie Pappas Published
Researchers have discovered a pattern where diamonds spew from deep beneath Earth's surface in huge, explosive volcanic eruptions.

By Stephanie Pappas Published
A new type of chemistry performed at very cold temperatures on very small particles enables quick, precise reactions.

By Stephanie Pappas Published
Though Earth's innermost core is solid, new research suggests that it hosts a lot of variation.

By Stephanie Pappas Published
Scientists have found a white dwarf that is cooling and crystallizing into a giant diamond.

By Stephanie Pappas Published
A new search for extraterrestrial life has scientists looking inward — toward the center of our galaxy.

By Stephanie Pappas Published
Asteroid 2023 DZ2 will zip between Earth and the moon's orbit on March 25 and may be visible with the right telescope.

By Stephanie Pappas Published
The newly discovered comet C/2023 A3 is making a close approach around the sun for the first time in 80,000 years, and might be as bright as a star in fall 2024.

By Stephanie Pappas Published
NASA's Curiosity Mars rover has photographed clear signs of ripples locked into a Martian rock, a sign of an ancient lake on the Red Planet's surface.

By Stephanie Pappas Published
The Winchcombe meteorite was collected mere hours after it fell, but researchers have found that it was already contaminated with earthly minerals, including common table salt.
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