MESSENGER spies a soccer ball on Mercury

Olé, Olé, Olé! Good news World Cup fans, a soccer ball has been found on Mercury! This 'soccer ball' is actually an old impact crater in Goethe Basin that has been flooded with volcanic lava flows, resulting in a 'ghost ...

Materials that shrink when heated

One common reason that people with fillings experience toothache is that their fillings expand at a different rate to the original tooth when, for example, drinking a hot drink. Contrary to intuition, however, not all materials ...

Patterns in Mars crater floors give picture of drying lakes

Networks of giant polygonal troughs etched across crater basins on Mars have been identified as desiccation cracks caused by evaporating lakes, providing further evidence of a warmer, wetter martian past.  The findings were ...