Researchers have developed the Smaller Than Earth Habitability Model (STEHM) to assess which planets can maintain life-supporting atmospheres, focusing on size and atmospheric dynamics.
Astrobiology
Jun 4, 2026
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26
4.5 billion years ago was an interesting time for Earth. The atmosphere was thick and what we would now think of as toxic. The moon, which was freshly formed, looks much more massive than it does today and faintly glows with ...
Astrobiology
Jun 1, 2026
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28
Bizarre Venus surface formations (or coronae) are likely key to understanding our twin planet's heretofore inscrutable interior. Using NASA Magellan spacecraft data from decades past, Anna Gulcher, an Earth and planetary ...
Planetary Sciences
May 18, 2026
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27
The search for Earth 2.0 has begun in earnest. But there's a huge variety of exoplanets out there, so narrowing down the search to focus valuable telescope time on only the best candidates is critical. One variable of a planet ...
Planetary Sciences
May 11, 2026
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28
A new study, published in Science Advances, has refined some important details about the moon's largest and oldest impact crater, which stretches more than 1,200 miles (2,000 km) on the far side of the moon. The new details ...
Mercury is a small, rocky planet about which researchers know relatively little. Two missions, taking readings as they passed over the planet, have revealed that Mercury is covered by an iron-poor and sulfur-rich crust. It ...
Planetary Sciences
Apr 19, 2026
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67
The moon is Earth's only natural satellite, a rocky celestial body that orbits our planet at an average distance of about 384,000 kilometers. The most widely accepted scientific explanation for the moon's origin is the "giant ...
Planetary Sciences
Apr 13, 2026
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13
Slow roiling convection currents deep within Earth's mantle, which are associated with the movements of tectonic plates, also deform the material of the mantle itself. Now, a new study in The Seismic Record confirms that ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 2, 2026
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38
Earth's "gold kitchen" lies deep beneath the seafloor. Island arcs, whose volcanoes form above subduction zones where one oceanic plate sinks beneath another, are often particularly rich in gold. The reasons for this have ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 1, 2026
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164
Venus is increasingly becoming a touch point for our studies of exoplanets, as missions like the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the upcoming Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) begin to characterize rocky exoplanets ...
Planetary Sciences
Mar 26, 2026
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