The surface of Mars is known for being an extremely cold, desiccated, and irradiated place. But as its many surface features attest, the red planet was once a warmer, wetter place with flowing water and glaciers. Today, most ...
Planetary Sciences
Mar 29, 2025
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73
All planets are made of gas, ice, rock and metal, and models of how planets form usually assume that these materials don't react chemically with each other. But what if some of them do?
Planetary Sciences
Mar 27, 2025
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54
Many protoplanetary disks in which new planets are formed are much smaller than thought. Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) scientists of the Leiden Observatory (the Netherlands) looked at 73 protoplanetary ...
Astronomy
Mar 26, 2025
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122
Solar power satellite (SPS) advocates have been dreaming of using space resources to build massive constructions for decades. In-space resource utilization (ISRU) advocates would love to oblige them, but so far, there hasn't ...
Space Exploration
Mar 17, 2025
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39
More than 3 billion years ago, Mars intermittently had liquid water on its surface. After the planet lost much of its atmosphere, however, surface water could no longer persist. The fate of Mars's water—whether it was buried ...
Planetary Sciences
Mar 13, 2025
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108
An international team of astronomers working with the Canada France Hawaii Telescope have discovered a whopping 128 more moons orbiting Saturn. The Minor Planet Center confirmed the discoveries on March 11. The team observed ...
Planetary Sciences
Mar 13, 2025
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123
When a mudflat crumbles on Earth, or an ice sheet splinters on one of Jupiter's moons (Europa), or an ancient lakebed breaks on Mars, do these fractures follow a hidden geometric script? Could similar patterns on another ...
Astrobiology
Mar 5, 2025
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36
The seven other planets in our solar system will line up in the night sky on Friday evening for a rare alignment called a "planetary parade" that will not happen again until 2040.
Planetary Sciences
Feb 28, 2025
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900
If you've ever looked at Mars through a telescope, you probably noticed its two polar ice caps. The northern one is made largely of water ice—the most obvious sign that Mars was once a wetter, warmer world. A team of researchers ...
Planetary Sciences
Feb 28, 2025
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113
The night sky offers us a variety of spectacles throughout the year, but for the remainder of the month, we have front-row seats to see—not one or two—but seven planets at once.
Astronomy
Feb 26, 2025
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80
