Several Oceans’ Worth of Ancient Water May Reside in Minerals Buried Below Mars’ Surface
Much of Mars’ ancient water was buried in the planet’s crust, not lost to space. Several oceans’ worth of ancient water may reside in minerals…
Planets
Scientists Model Saturn’s Interior – Thick Layer of Helium Rain May Influence the Planet’s Magnetic Field
Researchers simulate conditions necessary for planet’s unique magnetic field. New Johns Hopkins University simulations offer an intriguing look into Saturn’s interior, suggesting that a thick…
Meteorites Reveal Ancient Magnetic Record of Protoplanet Churn
The signatures of ancient magnetic fields in meteorites support an extended time frame for the cooling of molten protoplanetary cores. If you stumble upon an…
Cracking the Mysteries of Venus: New Information on Planet’s Spin and Internal Structure
15 years of radar measurements provide new information on planet’s spin, internal structure. Venus is an enigma. It’s the planet next door and yet reveals…
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe Discovers Radio Signal in Venus’ Atmosphere
During a brief swing by Venus, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe detected a natural radio signal that revealed the spacecraft had flown through the planet’s upper…
HI-SEAS Mars/Moon Habitat: Scientists Don Spacesuits to Explore Hawaiian Lava Tubes As if They Were on Mars
Imagine trying to pick up a pebble or scrape microbes off a cave wall in a bulky spacesuit with puffy gloves on, under a time…
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe Delivers 1st Complete View of Venus’ Orbital Dust Ring
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe mission has given scientists the first complete look at Venus’ orbital dust ring, a collection of microscopic dust particles that circulates…
Life on Mars? Scientists Find Mars Has Right Ingredients for Present-Day Microbial Life Beneath Its Surface
New research suggests that rocks in the Martian crust could produce the same kind of chemical energy that supports microbial life deep beneath Earth’s surface….
Putting the Pieces Back Together: Scientists Reconstruct Solar System’s Original Architecture
As the solar system was developing, the giant planets (Jupiter and Saturn) formed very early, and as they grew, they migrated both closer to and…
Curiosity Rover Finds That Mars Did Not Dry Up All at Once
Mars had dry and wet eras and dried up for good 3 billion years ago. While attention has been focused on the Perseverance rover that…
New Theory Addresses Centuries-Old Physics Problem
Hebrew University Researcher Introduces New Approach to Three-Body Problem, Predicts its Outcome Statistics. The “three-body problem,” the term coined for predicting the motion of three…
NASA’s Io Volcano Observer: Following the Heat and Hunting Clues to Planet Evolution
A proposed mission called Io Volcano Observer (IVO) would visit Jupiter’s moon Io, which is a true volcanic wonderland with hundreds of erupting volcanoes gushing…
Scientists Warn of “Oxygen False Positives” in Search for Signs of Alien Life on Other Planets
Oxygen in the atmosphere may not be an entirely reliable ‘biosignature,’ but there are ways to distinguish false positives from signs of life, scientists say….
Intriguing Secret to Jupiter’s Curious Aurora Activity Revealed in New Research
Auroral displays continue to intrigue scientists, whether the bright lights shine over Earth or over another planet. The lights hold clues to the makeup of…
Life on Venus? Scientists Shed More Light on Molecules Linked to Life on Other Planets
To confirm life on other planets, we need to detect far more molecules in their atmospheres than we currently do to rule out non-biological chemical…
Planetary Scientists Discover That Mars Underwent a Great Oxygenation Event Billions of Years Ago
Both Earth and Mars currently have oxidizing atmospheres, which is why iron-rich materials in daily life develop rust (a common name for iron oxide) during…
“Failed Stars” Caught Speeding: Astronomers Clock the Fastest-Spinning Brown Dwarfs
Astronomers at Western University have discovered the most rapidly rotating brown dwarfs known. They found three brown dwarfs that each complete a full rotation roughly…
Mars Didn’t Dry Up in One Go – Martian Climate Cycled Between Dry and Wet Periods
The Perseverance rover has just landed on Mars. Meanwhile, its precursor Curiosity continues to explore the base of Mount Sharp (officially Aeolis Mons), a mountain…