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Planetary Sciences news
What geologists see when they look at Perseverance's landing site
Geologists love fieldwork. They love getting their specialized hammers and chisels into seams in the rock, exposing unweathered surfaces and teasing out the rock's secrets. Mars would be the ultimate field trip for many of ...
Space Exploration
Feb 26, 2021
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Titan's atmosphere recreated in an Earth laboratory
Beyond Earth, the general scientific consensus is that the best place to search for evidence of extraterrestrial life is Mars. However, it is by no means the only place. Aside from the many extrasolar planets that have been ...
Planetary Sciences
Feb 25, 2021
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Parker Solar Probe offers stunning view of Venus
NASA's Parker Solar Probe captured stunning views of Venus during its close flyby of the planet in July 2020.
Space Exploration
Feb 24, 2021
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Perseverance rover gives high-definition panoramic view of landing site
NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance rover got its first high-definition look around its new home in Jezero Crater on Feb. 21, after rotating its mast, or "head," 360 degrees, allowing the rover's Mastcam-Z instrument to capture ...
Planetary Sciences
Feb 24, 2021
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Scientist captures evidence of dynamic seasonal activity on a Martian sand dune
A Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) scientist examined 11 Mars years of image data to understand the seasonal processes that create linear gullies on the slopes of the megadune in the Russell crater on Mars. In early spring ...
Planetary Sciences
Feb 24, 2021
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Astronomers detect new super-Earth exoplanet orbiting nearby star
Using the radial velocity (RV) technique, astronomers have discovered a new super-Earth alien world as part of the HADES and CARMENES programs. The newfound exoplanet, designated GJ 740 b, orbits a bright star some 36 light-years ...
How were the Trojan asteroids discovered and named?
On Feb. 22, 1906, German astrophotographer Max Wolf helped reshape our understanding of the solar system. Again.
Space Exploration
Feb 24, 2021
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Martian moons have a common ancestor
Mars's two moons, Phobos and Deimos, have puzzled researchers since their discovery in 1877. They are very small: Phobos's diameter of 22 kilometers is 160 times smaller than that of our moon, and Deimos is even smaller, ...
Astronomy
Feb 23, 2021
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Scientists image a bright meteoroid explosion in Jupiter's atmosphere
From aboard the Juno spacecraft, a Southwest Research Institute-led instrument observing auroras serendipitously spotted a bright flash above Jupiter's clouds last spring. The Ultraviolet Spectrograph (UVS) team studied the ...
Planetary Sciences
Feb 22, 2021
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A unique prototype of microbial life designed on actual Martian material
Experimental microbially assisted chemolithotrophy provides an opportunity to trace the putative bioalteration processes of the Martian crust. A study on the Noachian Martian breccia Northwest Africa (NWA) 7034, composed ...
Astrobiology
Feb 22, 2021
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Life from Earth could temporarily survive on Mars
Some microbes on Earth could temporarily survive on the surface of Mars, finds a new study by NASA and German Aerospace Center scientists. The researchers tested the endurance of microorganisms to Martian conditions by launching ...
Astrobiology
Feb 22, 2021
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Mars rovers safe from lightning strikes, research finds
If experiments done in small bottles in a University of Oregon lab are accurate, the friction of colliding Martian dust particles are unlikely to generate big electrical storms or threaten the newly arrived exploration vehicles ...
Space Exploration
Feb 19, 2021
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We could find extraterrestrial civilizations by their air pollution
Upcoming telescopes will give us more power to search for biosignatures on all the exoplanets we've found. Much of the biosignature conversation is centered on biogenic chemistry, such as atmospheric gases produced by simple, ...
Astrobiology
Feb 19, 2021
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'Perseverance will get you anywhere': After 300-million-mile journey, NASA's Mars rover shares Twitter updates
"I'm safe on Mars" isn't a tweet you see every day.
Space Exploration
Feb 19, 2021
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NASA rover lands on Mars to look for signs of ancient life
A NASA rover streaked through the orange Martian sky and landed on the planet Thursday, accomplishing the riskiest step yet in an epic quest to bring back rocks that could answer whether life ever existed on Mars.
Space Exploration
Feb 18, 2021
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The search for life beyond Earth
Mars may now be considered a barren, icy desert but did Earth's nearest neighbour once harbour life?
Space Exploration
Feb 18, 2021
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Juno just saw a spacerock crash into Jupiter
Timing is extraordinarily important in many aspects of astronomy. If an astronomer or their instrument is looking the wrong way at the wrong time, they could miss something spectacular. Alternatively, there are moments when ...
Space Exploration
Feb 18, 2021
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Signals in optical band can be used as probe to detect atmosphere escape of hot Jupiters
YAN Dongdong, GUO Jianheng and Xing Lei from Yunnan Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, collaborating with Huang Chenliang from University of Arizona, deduced that there is an expanding and escaping thermal ...
Astronomy
Feb 18, 2021
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Searching for life in NASA's Perseverance Mars samples
NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance rover will be the agency's ninth mission to land on the Red Planet. Along with characterizing the planet's geology and climate, and paving the way for human exploration beyond the Moon, the rover ...
Astrobiology
Feb 18, 2021
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Evidence of Planet Nine diminishing as researchers find no evidence of clustering
An international team of researchers has found no evidence of trans-Neptunian object clustering as part of an effort to refute the idea of the existence of Planet Nine. The group has written a paper describing their findings ...
More news
Moon's largest crater holds clues about early lunar mantle
Melting dusty ice may have carved Martian gullies
InSight is meeting the challenge of winter on dusty Mars
A new way of forming planets
Discovering new gases on Mars
Scientists detect water vapour emanating from Mars
NASA's OSIRIS-REx to fly a farewell tour of Bennu
Super-Earth atmospheres probed at Sandia's Z machine
Jupiter's Trojan asteroids offer surprises
Decoding the age of the ice at Mars' north pole
Possible detection of hydrazine on Saturn's moon Rhea
Martian landslides caused by underground salts and melting ice?
Other news
Bird believed extinct for 170 years spotted in Borneo
Using deep-sea fiber optic cables to detect earthquakes
Nuclear physicists on the hunt for squeezed protons
Engineering the boundary between 2-D and 3-D materials
Light-emitting tattoo engineered for the first time
Cerium sidelines silver to make drug precursor
On-surface synthesis of graphene molecules and their superlattices
MESSENGER saw a meteoroid strike Mercury
NASA's Perseverance rover 22 days from Mars landing
Rocks show Mars once felt like Iceland
The obliquity of Mars: Periodic bedding in Tithonium Chasma
Researchers find Mars has a Chandler wobble
Maternal instincts lead to social life of bees
Pesticide imidacloprid threatens future for key pollinator
First complete coronavirus model shows cooperation
Invasive species often start as undetected 'sleeper populations'
Warming may promote spread of invasive blue catfish
New catalyst makes styrene manufacturing cheaper, greener
