Planetary Science

Planetary Science

Planets without stars might have moons suitable for life

Thanks to gravitational squeezing by their host planets, some moons of rogue planets could stay warm for over a billion years, simulations suggest.

Planetary Science

Baby Jupiter glowed so brightly it might have desiccated its moon

During its infancy, Jupiter may have glowed about 10 thousand times brighter than it does today, which may explain why its moon Io is completely dry.

Space

A crucial building block of life exists on the asteroid Ryugu

A sample from Ryugu collected by Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft contains uracil, a component of RNA, which is found in all living cells.

Agriculture

Martian soil may have all the nutrients rice needs

Experiments hint that in the future, we might be able to grow the staple food in the soils of the Red Planet.

Planetary Science

A volcano on Venus was spotted erupting in decades-old images

A new look at old data reveals an eruption on Venus in the 1990s that was probably similar to Hawaii’s Kilauea eruption in 2018.

Earth

A moon-forming cataclysm could have also triggered Earth’s plate tectonics

Deeply buried remnants of a hypothetical planet that slammed into Earth 4.5 billion years ago might have set subduction into motion.

Space

What has Perseverance found in two years on Mars?

NASA's Perseverance rover has turned up volcanic rocks, signs of flowing water and some of the materials necessary for life.

Astronomy

The Kuiper Belt’s dwarf planet Quaoar hosts an impossible ring

Quaoar’s ring lies outside the Roche limit, an imaginary line beyond which rings aren’t thought to be stable.

Astronomy

Lots of Tatooine-like planets around binary stars may be habitable

A new simulation suggests that planets orbiting a pair of stars may be plentiful, and many of those worlds could be suitable for life.

Planetary Science

Enceladus is blanketed in a thick layer of snow

Pits on the Saturnian moon reveal the surprising depth of the satellite’s snow, suggesting its plume was more active in the past.

Planetary Science

Methylated gases could be an unambiguous indicator of alien life

On Earth, methylated gases are produced by organisms cleaning up their environment — and by little else. The same might be true on some exoplanets.

Space

Io may have an underworld magma ocean or a hot metal heart

New calculations support dueling ideas for what powers the ubiquitous volcanoes on the hellish surface of Jupiter’s innermost moon.