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Planetary Sciences news
A 60-year old mystery about the moon's magnetosphere is finally solved
One particularly well-known fact about the moon is that it doesn't have much of a magnetosphere to speak of. There's no blanket to protect it from the solar wind ravaging its surface, blowing away its atmosphere and charging ...
Planetary Sciences
7 hours ago
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JWST maps Europa's CO₂ beyond Tara Regio, hinting at subsurface exchange
Europa is not supposed to look the way it does. Jupiter's icy moon is scarred by a chaotic patchwork of fractured terrain, crisscrossed ridges, and disrupted surface regions that suggest something dynamic is happening beneath ...
Astrobiology
10 hours ago
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Origin of lowest density super-puff planet remains a hazy mystery
A thick layer of haze around the ultra-low-density planet Kepler-51d likely obscures not only the strange planet's composition, but also its origin, according to a new study. A team led by Penn State researchers used NASA's ...
Planetary Sciences
14 hours ago
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Ryugu asteroid samples contain all DNA and RNA building blocks, bolstering origin-of-life theories
All the essential ingredients to make the DNA and RNA underpinning life on Earth have been discovered in samples collected from the asteroid Ryugu, scientists said Monday.
Astrobiology
14 hours ago
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Ice satellite detects powerful geomagnetic storm with precision
It seems improbable that a satellite designed to monitor polar ice sheets and floating sea ice could accurately measure a disturbance in Earth's magnetic field. But that is just what ESA's CryoSat mission did earlier this ...
Planetary Sciences
18 hours ago
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Planning Titan entry? New lab tests flag nitrogen-driven heat shield debris risks
Heat shields are designed to protect the surface and cargo of a spacecraft as it enters an atmosphere. Aerospace engineers in The Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign recently observed ...
Space Exploration
22 hours ago
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A new class of molten planet stores abundant sulfur in a perpetual magma ocean
A study led by the University of Oxford has identified a new type of planet beyond our solar system—one that stores large amounts of sulfur deep within a permanent ocean of magma. The findings have been published in Nature ...
Astronomy
23 hours ago
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CHEOPS discovery defies planetary formation rules
We're starting to see just how exceptional our own solar system and its history is, as more exoplanets are discovered. A fourth exoplanet discovery in the LHS 1903 system made by ESA's CHEOPS mission places a rocky world ...
Astronomy
Mar 15, 2026
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TESS discovers a super-Earth exoplanet orbiting nearby star
Using the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), astronomers have discovered a new super-Earth exoplanet orbiting a star located about 83 light years away. The newfound alien world is slightly larger than Earth and ...
Dry ice detected in a planetary nebula for the first time
An international team of astronomers has employed the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to observe a complex planetary nebula known as NGC 6302. The observations, detailed in a paper published Feb. 25 on the arXiv pre-print ...
This isn't just another rocky world orbiting a red dwarf—this one's special
Astronomers have found an exoplanet that could serve as a benchmark in future studies. It's a rocky planet orbiting an M-type star, and though these planets are plentiful, this one could serve as a benchmark for understanding ...
Astronomy
Mar 13, 2026
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NASA's tiny spacecraft sends first exoplanet images
With the first images from the spacecraft now in hand, the team behind NASA's Star-Planet Activity Research CubeSat, or SPARCS, is ready to begin charting the energetic lives of the galaxy's most common stars to help answer ...
Astronomy
Mar 12, 2026
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NASA plans to have a permanent base on the moon by 2030: How it can be done
A US Senate committee has directed NASA to begin work on a moon base "as soon as is practicable." Under legislation advanced by the Senate lawmakers, the outpost would serve as a science laboratory and proving ground, where ...
Space Exploration
Mar 12, 2026
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Astronomers discuss fortifying our planetary defenses
When people think of asteroids, they tend to picture rare, civilization-ending impacts like those depicted in movies such as "Armageddon." In reality, the asteroids most likely to affect modern society are much smaller. While ...
Planetary Sciences
Mar 12, 2026
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We are not alone: Our sun escaped together with stellar 'twins' from galaxy center
Researchers have uncovered evidence for our sun joining a mass migration of similar "twins" leaving the core regions of our galaxy, 4 to 6 billion years ago. The team created and studied an unprecedentedly accurate catalog ...
Astronomy
Mar 12, 2026
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The Rubin Observatory's LSST will detect imminent impactors before they crash into Earth
The Vera Rubin Observatory (VRO) has barely begun observations and is already wowing us. Images like its Cosmic Treasure Chest have us anticipating even more cosmic glory. And when the observatory sent out 800,000 alerts ...
Astronomy
Mar 11, 2026
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Astronomers collect rare evidence of two planets colliding
Anastasios (Andy) Tzanidakis was combing through old telescope data from 2020 when he found an otherwise boring star acting very strangely. The star, named Gaia20ehk, was about 11,000 light-years from Earth near the constellation ...
Planetary Sciences
Mar 11, 2026
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Hydrogen atmosphere could keep exomoons habitable for billions of years
Liquid water is considered essential for life. Surprisingly, however, stable conditions that are conducive to life could exist far from any sun. A research team from the Excellence Cluster ORIGINS at LMU and the Max Planck ...
Astrobiology
Mar 11, 2026
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How jagged moon dust could support future astronauts
Lunar dust can be a pain—but it's also literally the ground we will have to traverse if we are ever to have a permanent human settlement on the moon. In that specific use case, its clingy, jagged, staticky properties can ...
Space Exploration
Mar 10, 2026
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A new model defines an upper limit to planetary radiation belt intensity
We all know that stars radiate light and much more. But radiation belts can also surround many other celestial bodies, such as planets. These belts do not generate particles themselves—the belts receive them from nearby ...
Planetary Sciences
Mar 10, 2026
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More news
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Terraforming Mars isn't a climate problem—it's an industrial nightmare
How do we know what asteroids are made out of?
DART images reveal asteroids can toss slow 'cosmic snowballs' between moons
NASA rules out asteroid smashup on the moon in 2032
Introducing the Interplanetary Habitable Zone
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A clear roadmap for engineering combs of light
SWOT satellite takes stock of world's river water
Mars Express orbiter captures craters on planet's Arabia Terra
Asteroid Ryugu samples offer new insights into early solar system magnetism
NASA's MAVEN detects first evidence of lightning-like activity on Mars
How long do civilizations last?
Would Earth still be habitable without us?
New study offers insight into tissue-specific gene regulation of sheep
