https://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. An international team including Cornell researcher Jake Turner has developed a novel analysis method capable of uncovering previously undetectable stellar and exoplanetary signals hidden within archival radio-astronomical data. Thanks to this innovation, scientists have discovered new radio bursts originating from dwarf stars and possibly from exoplanets. The analysis method, Multiplexed Interferometric Radio Spectroscopy (RIMS), found that some of the signals detected are consistent with star-planet interactions. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-radio-method-uncovers-hidden-dwarf.html Astronomy Wed, 28 Jan 2026 12:16:31 EST news688824961 Planetary scientists believe they can now predict the green glow of an aurora in the night sky above Mars, and they have the images to prove it. https://phys.org/news/2025-09-green-aurorae-red-planet.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 10 Sep 2025 08:36:03 EDT news676712161 Exoplanet habitability depends on a whole host of factors, with liquid water at the top of the list. It also requires a stable atmosphere, the right chemistry, and possibly even things like plate tectonics or other geological activity. Planetary magnetic fields are a critical part of the formula, too, but detecting them from Earth's surface is difficult. https://phys.org/news/2025-08-exoplanet-magnetic-fields-moon.html Planetary Sciences Tue, 19 Aug 2025 15:53:04 EDT news674837582 Ice crystals in Earth's atmosphere sometimes align just right to create various striking visual effects, from a halo around the moon, to bright spots called sundogs on either side of the sun in a winter sky, or a rainbowed pillar, called a crown flash, above a storm cloud. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-sun-dogs-celestial-effects-alien.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 30 Jul 2025 11:52:03 EDT news673095121 How can artificial intelligence (AI) be used to locate lunar pits and skylights, which are surface depressions and openings, respectively, that serve as entrances to lava caves and lava tubes? This is what a recent study published in Icarus hopes to address as an international team of researchers investigated using machine learning algorithms to more efficiently identify pits and skylights on lunar volcanic regions (lunar maria) of the moon. This study has the potential to help researchers develop new methods in identifying key surface features on planetary bodies that could aid in both robotic and human exploration. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-ai-uncovers-subsurface-entrances-moon.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 30 Jul 2025 10:00:02 EDT news673088002 Magnetic fields play an important—if sometimes underappreciated—part in planetary systems. Without a strong magnetic field, planets can end up as a barren wasteland like Mars, or they could indirectly affect massive storms, as can be seen on Jupiter. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-magnetic-fields-exoplanets.html Astronomy Mon, 21 Jul 2025 15:50:01 EDT news672330549 NASA's Europa Clipper, which launched Oct. 14 on a journey to Jupiter's moon Europa, is already 13 million miles (20 million kilometers) from Earth. Two science instruments have deployed hardware that will remain at attention, extending out from the spacecraft, for the next decade—through the cruise to Jupiter and the entire prime mission. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-europa-clipper-millions-miles-instruments.html Planetary Sciences Mon, 25 Nov 2024 15:46:03 EST news651771961 Diamond rain? Super-ionic water? These are just two proposals that planetary scientists have come up with for what lies beneath the thick, bluish, hydrogen-and-helium atmospheres of Uranus and Neptune, our solar system's unique, but superficially bland, ice giants. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-planetary-scientist-alternative-theory-beneath.html Planetary Sciences Mon, 25 Nov 2024 15:00:01 EST news651746701 Every second, more than 3,000 stars are born in the visible universe. Many are surrounded by what astronomers call a protoplanetary disk—a swirling "pancake" of hot gas and dust from which planets form. The exact processes that give rise to stars and planetary systems, however, are still poorly understood. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-webb-reveals-protoplanetary-disks.html Planetary Sciences Fri, 04 Oct 2024 09:34:04 EDT news647253241 The awe-inspiring aurorae seen on Earth, known as the Northern and Southern Lights, have been a source of fascination for centuries. Between May 10 and 12, 2024, the most powerful aurora event in 21 years reminded us of the stunning beauty of these celestial light shows. https://phys.org/news/2024-05-scientists-framework-diverse-aurorae-planets.html Planetary Sciences Mon, 27 May 2024 08:52:05 EDT news636018722 Universe Today has examined the importance of studying impact craters, planetary surfaces, exoplanets, astrobiology, solar physics, comets, and planetary atmospheres, and how these intriguing scientific disciplines can help scientists and the public better understand how we are pursuing life beyond Earth. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-planetary-geophysics-life-earth.html Astrobiology Tue, 19 Mar 2024 13:11:04 EDT news630072661 Astrophysicists studying a popular exoplanet in its star's habitable zone have found that electric currents in the planet's upper atmosphere could create sufficient heating to expand the atmosphere enough that it leaves the planet, likely leaving the planet uninhabitable. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-atmospheric-destruction-potentially-habitable-exoplanet.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 21 Feb 2024 11:00:01 EST news627733788 Just as snow crystals form in the upper atmosphere, then fall to lower, warmer elevations and melt, scientists believe a phenomenon called iron snow happens in the molten iron cores of some planetary bodies. Cooling near the core-mantle boundary creates crystals of iron, which melt as they fall deeper into the hot core. This movement may create magnetic fields in some smaller bodies like Mercury and Jupiter's moon Ganymede, but its dynamics are not well known. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-iron-ebb-magnetic-fields.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 03 Jan 2024 09:43:03 EST news623497381 In 2023, amateur astronomer Dana Patchick was looking through images from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer archive and discovered a diffuse, circular object in the constellation of Cassiopeia. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-amateur-astronomer-one-of-a-kind-supernova-remnant.html Astronomy Thu, 16 Nov 2023 12:44:03 EST news619361041 French novelist Jules Verne delighted 19th-century readers with the tantalizing notion that a journey to the center of the Earth was actually plausible. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-nasa-psyche-mission-metal-world.html Space Exploration Fri, 18 Aug 2023 13:23:08 EDT news611583786 A pair of Earth, atmospheric and planetary scientists at Massachusetts Institute of Technology has shown how the magnetic field of a meteorite can be damaged by amateur collectors using hand magnets. In their paper published in Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, Foteini Vervelidou and Benjamin Weiss describe how they tested the impact on the magnetic field of terrestrial basalt—as a stand in for meteorites—when it is exposed to hand magnets and what they learned by doing so. https://phys.org/news/2023-04-magnets-amateurs-meteorites.html Planetary Sciences Tue, 11 Apr 2023 12:40:01 EDT news600435315 Astronomers have discovered thousands of exoplanets in recent years. Most have them have been discovered by the transit method, where an optical telescope measures the brightness of a star over time. If the star dips very slightly in brightness, it could indicate that a planet has passed in front of it, blocking some of the light. The transit method is a powerful tool, but it has limitations. Not the least of which is that the planet must pass between us and its star for us to detect it. The transit method also relies on optical telescopes. But a new method could allow astronomers to detect exoplanets using radio telescopes. https://phys.org/news/2022-08-planets-magnetospheres.html Astronomy Wed, 17 Aug 2022 10:58:02 EDT news579952681 The first ever exoplanets were discovered 30 years ago around a rapidly rotating star, called a pulsar. Now, astronomers have revealed that these planets may be incredibly rare. The new work will be presented tomorrow (Tuesday 12 July) at the National Astronomy Meeting (NAM 2022) by Iuliana Nițu, a Ph.D. student at the University of Manchester. https://phys.org/news/2022-07-undead-planets-unusual-conditions-exoplanet.html Astronomy Mon, 11 Jul 2022 03:54:58 EDT news576730484 Researchers have identified the first signature of a magnetic field surrounding a planet outside of our solar system. Earth's magnetic field acts as a shield against energetic particles from the sun known as the solar wind. Magnetic fields could play similar roles on other planets. https://phys.org/news/2021-12-astronomers-signature-magnetic-field-exoplanet.html Astronomy Tue, 21 Dec 2021 07:10:43 EST news559293040 In the early solar system, a "protoplanetary disk" of dust and gas rotated around the sun and eventually coalesced into the planets we know today. https://phys.org/news/2021-10-scientists-evidence-early-solar-harbored.html Astronomy Fri, 15 Oct 2021 14:00:02 EDT news553495582 A new study disputes the prevailing hypothesis on why Mercury has a big core relative to its mantle (the layer between a planet's core and crust). For decades, scientists argued that hit-and-run collisions with other bodies during the formation of our solar system blew away much of Mercury's rocky mantle and left the big, dense, metal core inside. But new research reveals that collisions are not to blame—the sun's magnetism is. https://phys.org/news/2021-07-mercury-big-iron-core-magnetism.html Planetary Sciences Fri, 02 Jul 2021 15:03:58 EDT news544457034 The planet Mars has no global magnetic field, although scientists believe it did have one at some point in the past. Previous studies suggest that when Mars' global magnetic field was present, it was approximately the same strength as Earth's current field. Surprisingly, instruments from past Mars missions, both orbiters and landers, have spotted patches on the planet's surface that are strongly magnetized—a property that could not have been produced by a magnetic field similar to Earth's, assuming the rocks on both planets are similar. https://phys.org/news/2021-03-planetary-science-intern-martian-crust.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 03 Mar 2021 13:07:12 EST news533999229 The amount of long-lived radioactive elements incorporated into a rocky planet as it forms may be a crucial factor in determining its future habitability, according to a new study by an interdisciplinary team of scientists at UC Santa Cruz. https://phys.org/news/2020-11-radioactive-elements-crucial-habitability-rocky.html Astronomy Tue, 10 Nov 2020 13:54:34 EST news524238868 Science instruments aboard the European-Japanese Mercury explorer BepiColombo are in excellent condition to gather high-quality data during the spacecraft's long cruise to the innermost planet of the Solar System despite not having been designed for this purpose, teams collaborating on the mission learned during the spacecraft's April flyby of Earth. https://phys.org/news/2020-05-earth-flyby-science-opportunities-bepicolombo.html Space Exploration Fri, 01 May 2020 07:18:34 EDT news507536306 Eight and a half years into its grand tour of the solar system, NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft was ready for another encounter. It was Jan. 24, 1986, and soon it would meet the mysterious seventh planet, icy-cold Uranus. https://phys.org/news/2020-03-revisiting-decades-old-voyager-scientists-secret.html Space Exploration Thu, 26 Mar 2020 08:12:46 EDT news504429163 An exoplanet may seem like the perfect spot to set up housekeeping, but before you go there, take a closer look at its star. https://phys.org/news/2019-10-goldilocks-exoplanets-well-behaved-star.html Astronomy Thu, 31 Oct 2019 10:55:02 EDT news491738094 Physicists at ETH Zurich have developed a new approach to couple quantized gauge fields to ultracold matter. The method might be the basis for a versatile platform to tackle problems ranging from condensed-matter to high-energy physics. https://phys.org/news/2019-08-orrery-quantum-gauge-theory.html General Physics Tue, 20 Aug 2019 07:00:14 EDT news485503201 In 1972, it took an astronaut going on a spacewalk to do what Lynn Carter now can do with a few mouse clicks over lunch. https://phys.org/news/2019-07-moon-worlds.html Space Exploration Thu, 18 Jul 2019 07:58:47 EDT news482655495 One of the big questions in solar physics is why the sun's activity follows a regular cycle of 11 years. Researchers from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), an independent German research institute, now present new findings, indicating that the tidal forces of Venus, Earth and Jupiter influence the solar magnetic field, thus governing the solar cycle. The team of researchers present their findings in the journal Solar Physics. https://phys.org/news/2019-05-corroborates-planetary-tidal-solar.html Space Exploration Tue, 28 May 2019 09:13:55 EDT news478253627 Which of Earth's features were essential for the origin and sustenance of life? And how do scientists identify those features on other worlds? https://phys.org/news/2019-05-planet-habitable.html Astronomy Thu, 02 May 2019 14:00:13 EDT news476010191