Jupiter is old. Like 4.5 billion years old. It started as a swirling disk of gas and dust that formed into a pretty big planetary core. With time, Jupiter’s core...
Sulfur hexafluoride, now that’s a mouthful. It sure is! It’s more commonly known as SF6 or deep voice gas because, well, it makes your voice deeper! But...
Really slow. So what if evolution had the same mindset, and decided to take its time before getting rid of some prehistoric creatures? What if the giant sloth was still...
Some say life is a roller coaster. What if it was more like this? We don't notice the earth spinning now, so what would life be like if it spun a little faster? Would we...
When it comes to energy, we have a long way to go before our utility bills become a thing of the past. On the Kardashev scale we’re still a Type 0 civilization...
Right now, there are 1,500 active volcanoes on Earth. Just one of those volcanoes could do catastrophic damage. But at midnight tonight, every volcano on the planet is...
Over 300 million years ago, before the age of giant dinosaurs, Earth was covered with giant insects. Imagine a world where dragonflies are the size of crows and...
What if climate change was taken to the absolute extreme and the entire planet’s ice melted?
We’ve talked about settling on the Moon, Mars and even Venus. But how about somewhere that’s cold, dark and smells like farts? Uranus. What would conditions be like on...
The Paleozoic Era represents one of the most transformative periods in Earth’s history, spanning approximately 289 million years from 541 to 252 million years ago...
Humans have explored the Moon, Mars, and of course, Earth. But what do we know about Jupiter? For the most part, this gas giant is a mystery. So what would happen if you...
This bug can survive anything, except maybe the bottom of your shoe. But what would happen if we squished every cockroach on Earth? How would this affect the food chain...
We visit a lot of planets here on WHAT IF, but K2-141b is the most extreme one yet. Are you ready to jump on board this one-way space shuttle? If you’d rather stay...
Take some cosmic dust and gas, add billions and billions of planets and a whole lot of stars to the mix. Spice it all up with a handful of gravity to hold things...
[dx_custom_adunit mobile_id=”RTK_v1lP”] All of the systems, beliefs, emotions, and experiences that we call life are taking place on a tiny rock floating...
Mountains. They’re born, they grow, they age and erode. And after a very, very long life, they turn to dust. What if all mountains collapsed at once? What are the...
Prehistoric Australia was not the sunny, laid back continent we know today. Between 126,000 and 12,000 years ago, during the late Pleistocene era, humans shared the land...
Ever wonder what it would feel like to step into an oven? Welcome to Death Valley, California. It’s so hot you can barely breathe. This national park that stretches...
When was the last time a bird pooped on you? Apparently, you have a better chance of winning the lottery than you do of getting pooped on by a bird, which is why some...
As the nukes dropped on every major city around the globe, everyone sought shelter, but there was nowhere to hide. In an instant, civilization as we knew it was...
