"We could determine the mass of the Himalayas using atoms," Jason Hyon, chief technologist for Earth Science at NASA's Jet ...

That’s how long it’s taken us to go from the humanity-lifting, awe-inspiring wonder of Neil Armstrong’s “It’s one small step for man” to what was, I suppose, inevitable.

Over 4.6 billion years ago, Earth took shape from a spinning cloud of dust and gas surrounding the young sun. Tiny particles ...