Moons are planets too
What makes a planet a planet? The answer turns out to be rather contentious. The official definition of a planet, as defined by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) is that a planet must satisfy three conditions:.....»»
What the rise of oxygen on early Earth tells us about life on other planets
When did the Earth reach oxygen levels sufficient to support animal life? Researchers from McGill University have discovered that a rise in oxygen levels occurred in step with the evolution and expansion of complex, eukaryotic ecosystems. Their findi.....»»
Extreme exoplanet has a complex and exotic atmosphere
An international team including researchers from the University of Bern and the University of Geneva as well as the National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) PlanetS analyzed the atmosphere of one of the most extreme known planets in great det.....»»
Study probes the planet"s turbulent past to explain where oceans came from
The origin of water on our planet is a hot question: Water has immense implications for plate tectonics, climate, the origin of life on Earth, and potential habitability of other Earth-like planets. In a recent study in Physical Review Letters, a Sko.....»»
Saturn"s "Death Star"-Shaped Moon Mimas May Be Hiding an Ocean
CNET reports: Saturn has some famous moons, like Enceladus (a plume-spewing moon of mystery) and Titan (the intriguing target of NASA's future Dragonfly mission). But what about dainty Mimas, a moon that's mostly known for its resemblance to the Sta.....»»
Rogue planets: How wandering bodies in interstellar space ended up on their own
We now know of almost 5,000 planets outside the Solar System. If you were to picture what it would be like on one of these distant worlds, or exoplanets, your mental image would probably include a parent star—or more than one, especially if you're.....»»
Water vapor detected on a "super Neptune"
The recently discovered planet TOI-674 b, a bit bigger than Neptune and orbiting a red-dwarf star about 150 light-years away, is a member of an exclusive club: Exoplanets, or planets around other stars, known to have water vapor in their atmospheres......»»
Image: Dedicated satellites to collect solar energy
Sunlight up in Earth orbit is 10 times more intense than down on Earth's surface, so the idea is to fly dedicated satellites to capture solar energy, then beam it down to Earth—and potentially the Moon or other planets further into the future......»»
Ironing out the interiors of exoplanets
The discovery of more than 4,500 extra-solar planets has created a need for modelling their interior structure and dynamics. As it turns out, iron plays a key role......»»
The Sun"s rings might be why Earth didn"t grow into a "Super-Earth"
"Pressure bumps" in the Sun's accretion disk when the planets were forming 4.5 billion years ago explain a lot about how the solar system developed......»»
Exploring oxygen ions in Jupiter"s innermost radiation belts
Planets like Earth, Jupiter and Saturn, with global magnetic fields of their own, are surrounded by so-called radiation belts: Trapped in the magnetic field, fast moving charged particles such as electrons, protons, and heavier ions whiz aroun, thus.....»»
From dust to planet: How gas giants form
Gas giants are made of a massive solid core surrounded by an even larger mass of helium and hydrogen. But even though these planets are quite common in the Universe, scientists still don't fully understand how they form. Now, astrophysicists Hiroshi.....»»
Pandora mission to study stars and exoplanets continues toward flight
The Pandora mission, co-led by a national laboratory and a NASA flight center, has passed a crucial step on its path to study stars and planets outside our solar system, or exoplanets......»»
Ocean physics explain cyclones on Jupiter
Hurtling around Jupiter and its 79 moons is the Juno spacecraft, a NASA-funded satellite that sends images from the largest planet in our solar system back to researchers on Earth. These photographs have given oceanographers the raw materials for a n.....»»
Researchers combine paleontology and fluid physics to uncover Ediacaran nurseries
Knowing how life worked on Earth 550 million years ago can give perspective on how life could evolve on other planets. And geobiologist and assistant professor of Earth and environmental sciences Simon Darroch and postdoctoral researcher Brandt Gibso.....»»
The James Webb Space Telescope will map the atmosphere of exoplanets
Exoplanets, planets that orbit stars other than the sun, are found at distances very far from Earth. For example, the closest exoplanet to us, Proxima Centauri b, is 4.2 light years away, or 265,000 times the distance between the Earth and the sun......»»
Jupiter"s Moons Are About To Get JUICE"d For Signs of Life
The European Space Agency will soon send JUICE, or the JUpiter ICy moons Explorer on a mission to scout out Jupiter and three of its 79 moons: Europa, Callisto, and Ganymede. From a report: Scheduled to launch in April 2023, JUICE will blast off from.....»»
Astronomers find mysterious dusty object orbiting a star
The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, TESS, was launched in 2018 with the goal of discovering small planets around the sun's nearest neighbor stars. TESS has so far discovered 172 confirmed exoplanets and compiled a list of 4703 candidate exopla.....»»
NASA-funded Program Recruited Religious Experts To Predict How Humans May React To Aliens
Two dozen theologians participated in a program funded partially by NASA to research how humans may react to news that intelligent life exists on other planets, according to one religious scholar who says he was recruited. From a report: The Rev. Dr......»»
Cosmic history can explain the properties of Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars
Astronomers have managed to link the properties of the inner planets of our solar system with our cosmic history: with the emergence of ring structures in the swirling disk of gas and dust in which these planets were formed. The rings are associated.....»»
Largest collection of free-floating planets found in the Milky Way
Using observations and archival data from several of NSF's NOIRLab's observatories, together with observations from telescopes around the world and in orbit, astronomers have discovered at least 70 new free-floating planets—planets that wander thro.....»»