Search results for Planetary Systems

Astrobiology Sep 21, 2026

Early Mars rocks reveal at least three separate water episodes

When NASA's Perseverance rover reached the inner edge of Mars' Jezero Crater in September 2023, mission scientists were surprised by what they found. The geologic area, called the "Margin Unit," stretches along the shoreline ...

Planetary Sciences Sep 21, 2026

A 'rebellious' exoplanet orbits in the opposite direction of its star

A star and its planets form when a cloud of gas and dust collapses in on itself somewhere in space. The cloud then forms a disk around the nascent star, within which the planets will form. This protostar and its disk then ...

Earth Sciences Sep 21, 2026

End of humanity? Blow‑by‑blow account of what would happen if the Yellowstone supervolcano erupted now

Around 631,000 years ago—a geological blink of an eye—catastrophe unfolded in what is now northwestern Wyoming, U.S. During what is thought to have been a series of immense volcanic eruptions, life within hundreds of kilometers ...

Earth Sciences Sep 21, 2026

Planetary Health Check 2026 finds mounting pressures across Earth's life support systems

Seven breached Planetary Boundaries continue to worsen as record ocean heat, droughts, floods, wildfires and extreme heat reveal an Earth system under strain, according to the latest Planetary Health Check. The annual update ...

Planetary Sciences Sep 20, 2026

Venus ate its moon: How Earth's 'twin' could have swallowed a rocky satellite

Scientists have long speculated why Venus, with a size, mass and structure similar to Earth's, doesn't have a moon. New UC Riverside research shows that our hungry twin likely swallowed it.

Earth Sciences Sep 19, 2026

Australia's vast Nullarbor Plain hides deep caves that can teach us about alien worlds

Stretching more than 200,000 square kilometers (77,000 square miles) across southern Australia, the vast, flat plains of the Nullarbor mark one of the world's largest regions of limestone. It formed when an ancient shallow ...

Astrobiology Sep 19, 2026

Scientists simulate cosmic crashes to test whether icy moons gain or lose their ability to sustain life

Many of the moons orbiting Saturn, Uranus and Neptune likely conceal oceans of liquid water beneath miles of icy shell. Because life as we know it needs water, these buried oceans rank among the most promising places to search ...

Astronomy Sep 18, 2026

From the start, the solar system chose fire over ice to build its first bodies

When the solar system first took up the task of building solid bodies—such as planets, moons and protoplanets—it basically had a choice between two ingredients: heat-forged chondrules, which were millimeter-sized bits of ...

Astronomy Sep 18, 2026

Time is running out to catch a giant planet's strange orbit

A team of researchers, including those from the University of Tokyo, spotted a rare kind of planet that's unusually hot and eccentric. TOI-1355 b orbits its star, TOI-1355, which is also much hotter than our sun, in a strange ...

Astrobiology Sep 17, 2026

A glimpse of the solar system's origins: Striking details on the molecules inside a meteorite

Researchers at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory and Brookhaven National Laboratory have teamed up to get a fresh look at the complex makeup of meteorites and glimpse into our solar system's past.

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