Luck Played a Major Role in Keeping Earth Fit for Life
A study by the University of Southampton gives a new perspective on why our planet has managed to stay habitable for billions of years –…
Planets
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe Captures Stunning View of Venus
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe captured stunning views of Venus during its close flyby of the planet in July 2020. Though Parker Solar Probe’s focus is…
Are Super-Earths Capable of Creating Conditions That Are Hospitable for Life to Arise and Thrive?
Can super-Earth interior dynamics set the table for habitability? New research led by Carnegie’s Yingwei Fei provides a framework for understanding the interiors of super-Earths…
The Milky Way May Be Swarming With Planets That Have Continents and Oceans Like Earth
According to a new study from the University of Copenhagen, Earth, Venus, and Mars were created from small dust particles containing ice and carbon. The…
A New Way of Forming Planets – A Decades Old Puzzle Solved?
In the last 25 years, scientists have discovered over 4000 planets beyond the borders of our solar system. From relatively small rock and water worlds…
Mysterious Origins of “Super-Earths” Uncovered by Astronomers
Study shows super-Earths are not leftovers of mini-Neptunes, challenging our understanding of planetary formation. Mini-Neptunes and super-Earths up to four times the size of our…
New Timeline for Mars Terrains: NASA’s Perseverance Rover Predicted to Encounter More Ancient Surfaces
Updated models predict that NASA’s Perseverance rover will encounter more ancient surfaces. A Southwest Research Institute scientist has updated Mars chronology models to find that…
Growing up Stardust: Astronomers Discover That Stars and Planets May Be Siblings
An international team of scientists has discovered planet formation in a star system younger than 500,000 years old. The find, published in Nature, is a…
Vaporized Crusts of Earth-Like Planets Discovered in Dying Stars
Remnants of planets with Earth-like crusts have been discovered in the atmospheres of four nearby white dwarf stars by University of Warwick astronomers, offering a…
“Farfarout” Indeed: Planetoid Confirmed to Be Solar System’s Most Distant Known Object
Gemini North helps define remote object’s distance and orbit. With the help of the international Gemini Observatory, a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab, and other ground-based…
“Farfarout” – Astronomers Confirm Solar System’s Most Distant Planetoid
A team, including an astronomer from the University of Hawaiʻi Institute for Astronomy (IfA), have confirmed a planetoid that is almost four times farther from…
A New Chemistry: ExoMars Orbiter Discovers New Gas and Traces Water Loss on Mars
Sea salt embedded in the dusty surface of Mars and lofted into the planet’s atmosphere has led to the discovery of hydrogen chloride – the…
SETI Researchers Have a New Theory About What Is Causing Landslides on the Surface of Mars
A team of researchers led by SETI Institute Senior Research Scientist Janice Bishop, a member of the SETI Institute NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI) team, has…
Two Scientists Have Figured Out What Caused Saturn’s Tilt
Two scientists from CNRS and Sorbonne University working at the Institute of Celestial Mechanics and Ephemeris Calculation (Paris Observatory – PSL/CNRS) have just shown that…
Rocks Show Mars Once Felt Like Iceland: Crater Study Offers Window on Temperatures 3.5 Billion Years Ago
Once upon a time, seasons in Gale Crater probably felt something like those in Iceland. But nobody was there to bundle up more than 3…
Two Spacecraft Designed to Study the Sun Also Got Some Recent Peeks at Earth and Other Planets
Looking Around the Neighborhood Though they focus on the star at the center of our solar system, some Sun-watching spacecraft recently captured unique views of…
Solis Dorsum, Mars – ExoMars Orbiter’s 20,000th Image
The CaSSIS camera onboard the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter has captured its 20,000th image of Mars! The image, taken on December 13, 2020, features Solis…
Much of Earth’s Nitrogen – A Life-Essential Element – Was Locally Sourced
Rice-led study shows two distinct origins of life-essential element in present-day planet. Where did Earth’s nitrogen come from? Rice University scientists show one primordial source…