UAE Mars Mission Captures Elusive Aurora on Red Planet
Lawrence Livermore Optics Used To Spot Elusive Aurora on Red Planet The United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) Mars mission that launched about a year ago has…
Planets
We Asked a NASA Technologist: Is There Weather on Mars? [Video]
Is there weather on Mars? Short answer: yes! And just like on Earth it varies wildly. Now, thanks to the Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer, or…
How Do Ice Giants Like Uranus and Neptune Maintain Their Magnetic Fields?
Probing the structures and properties of superionic ice. A layer of “hot,” electrically conductive ice could be responsible for generating the magnetic fields of ice…
A Mysterious Gap Within the Solar System’s Protoplanetary Disk
Scientists find evidence the early solar system harbored a gap between its inner and outer regions. The cosmic boundary, perhaps caused by a young Jupiter…
New Findings Suggest Venus Never Had Oceans, Conditions Needed for Life
Astrophysicists led by the UNIGE and the NCCR PlanetS have investigated the past of Venus to find out whether Earth’s sister planet once had oceans….
Planet Discovered That Survived Its Star’s Death: A Crystal Ball Into Our Solar System’s Future
Giant gas planet orbiting a dead star gives glimpse into the predicted aftermath of our sun’s demise. Astronomers have discovered the very first confirmed planetary…
Major 6-Year Search of the Outer Solar System Turns Up 461 New Objects (but No Planet 9)
In the near future, astronomers will benefit from the presence of next-generation telescopes like the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the Nancy Grace Roman…
Unexpected Radio Signals From Distant Stars Suggest Hidden Planets
Using the world’s most powerful radio antenna, scientists have discovered stars unexpectedly blasting out radio waves, possibly indicating the existence of hidden planets. The University…
Mushballs – Giant, Slushy Hailstones – Stash Away Missing Ammonia at Uranus and Neptune
Mushballs – giant, slushy hailstones made from a mixture of ammonia and water – may be responsible for an atmospheric anomaly at Neptune and Uranus…
Extreme Exoplanet – An Ultra-Hot Jupiter Where It Rains Iron – Even More Exotic Than Originally Thought
Considered an ultra-hot Jupiter – a place where iron gets vaporized, condenses on the night side and then falls from the sky like rain –…
Scientists Use Occultation Event To Confirm Decrease in Pluto’s Atmospheric Density
When Pluto passed in front of a star on the night of August 15, 2018, a Southwest Research Institute-led team of astronomers had deployed telescopes…
BepiColombo Captures Stunning Mercury Images During Close Gravity Assist Flyby
The ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission has captured its first views of its destination planet Mercury as it swooped past in a close gravity assist flyby last…
Astronomers May Have Discovered the First Known Planet to Orbit 3 Stars
Potential discovery of a circumtriple planet has implications for bolstering our understanding of planet formation. In a distant star system — a mere 1,300 light…
Hello Mercury! BepiColombo Spacecraft Captures Image During Gravity Assist Maneuver
The joint European-Japanese BepiColombo mission captured this view of Mercury on October 1, 2021, as the spacecraft flew past the planet for a gravity assist…
NASA’s Webb Space Telescope to Explore Forming Planetary Systems
Researchers will observe more than a dozen protoplanetary systems to gather data about their inner disks – where Earth-like planets may be forming What was…
Hot “Black Ice” – Come On In, the Water Is Superionic
The interiors of Uranus and Neptune each contain about 50,000 times the amount of water in Earth’s oceans, and a form of water known as…
Experiments Find That Electrical Sparks Are Possible on Mars
Experiments in a chamber under Martian-like conditions in a University of Oregon lab suggest that small sparks may be triggered by friction under normal atmospheric…
“No One Has Ever Seen This Before” – Hubble Shows Winds in Jupiter’s Great Red Spot Are Accelerating
The Winds at the Outer Edge Are ‘Winning the Race’ in This Enormous Storm System Listen up, race fans! The innermost lane no longer has…