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Planetary Sciences news
Five space mysteries Proba-3 will help solve
ESA's Proba-3 will be the first mission to create an artificial total solar eclipse by flying a pair of satellites 150 meters apart. For six hours at a time, it will be able to see the sun's faint atmosphere, the corona, ...
Astronomy
8 hours ago
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Publication outlines steps for building astronomy databases
Data access, or the availability of new and archival data for use by other scientists and the public, is key to scientific advancement. How data is presented, searched, and formatted determines accessibility, and it can be ...
Astronomy
8 hours ago
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Webb observations discover new planet in Kepler-51 'super-puff' system
An unusual planetary system with three known ultra-low density "super-puff" planets has at least one more planet, according to new research led by researchers from Penn State and Osaka University.
Planetary Sciences
10 hours ago
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Team links comet water to Earth's oceans
Researchers have found that water on Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko has a similar molecular signature to the water in Earth's oceans. Contradicting some recent results, this finding reopens the case that Jupiter-family ...
Astrobiology
10 hours ago
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NEOWISE, the NASA mission that cataloged objects around Earth for over a decade, has come to an end
The NASA project NEOWISE, which has given astronomers a detailed view of near-Earth objects—some of which could strike the Earth—ended its mission and burned on reentering the atmosphere after over a decade.
Planetary Sciences
13 hours ago
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Dragonfly is going to Titan on a Falcon Heavy
NASA has given SpaceX the contract to launch the Dragonfly mission to Saturn's moon Titan. A Falcon Heavy will send the rotorcraft and its lander on their way to Titan in 2028, if all goes according to plan, and the mission ...
Astrobiology
14 hours ago
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Planetary scientists confirm new main-belt comet
A mysterious object discovered in the main asteroid belt in 2021 was determined to be a main-belt comet by Planetary Science Institute Senior Scientist Henry Hsieh, Scott Sheppard of the Carnegie Institution for Science and ...
Astronomy
15 hours ago
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Perseverance now arriving at Pico Turquino
Perseverance has been continuing its sightseeing tour of the Jezero crater rim, with this week's travel itinerary including an up-close look at Pico Turquino. Here, the team hopes to investigate the history recorded in this ...
Planetary Sciences
15 hours ago
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BepiColombo's fifth Mercury flyby
On Sunday 1 December 2024, BepiColombo flew past the planet Mercury for the fifth time, readying itself for entering orbit around the solar system's mysterious innermost planet in 2026.
Space Exploration
Dec 2, 2024
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Astronomers deal a blow to theory that Venus once had liquid water on its surface
A team of astronomers has found that Venus has never been habitable, despite decades of speculation that our closest planetary neighbor was once much more like Earth than it is today.
Astrobiology
Dec 2, 2024
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A CubeSat mission to Phobos could map staging bases for a Mars landing
The moons of Mars are garnering increased attention, not only because they could provide a view of the solar system's past but also because they could provide invaluable staging areas for any future human settlement on Mars ...
Space Exploration
Dec 2, 2024
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Interstellar objects can't hide from Vera Rubin
We have studied the skies for centuries, but we have only found two objects known to come from another star system. The first interstellar object to be confirmed was 1I/2017 U1, more commonly known as 'Oumuamua. It was discovered ...
Astronomy
Dec 2, 2024
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Observations shed more light on the properties of three-planet system TOI-396
An international team of astronomers has investigated a planetary system consisting of three alien worlds orbiting the star TOI-396. The study, published Nov. 22 on the pre-print server arXiv, provides the first mass measurements ...
How much are asteroids really worth?
Popular media love talking about asteroid mining using big numbers. Many articles talk about a mission to Psyche, the largest metallic asteroid in the asteroid belt, as visiting a body worth $10,000,000,000,000,000,000, presumably ...
Planetary Sciences
Nov 29, 2024
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Ryugu asteroid samples indicate damage from microscopic meteoroid bombardment
Asteroids are remnants of the formation of our solar system, and while many can be found within the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, some cannot. One such object is asteroid (162173) Ryugu, a 1 km-wide ...
OKEANOS—A mission that would have returned samples from the Trojan asteroids
Getting a mission to the point of officially being accepted for launch is an ordeal. However, even when they aren't selected for implementation, their ideas, and in some cases, their technologies, can live on in other missions. ...
Space Exploration
Nov 26, 2024
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Astronomers discover a 'hot Neptune' in a tight orbit
A Neptune-sized planet, TOI-3261 b, makes a scorchingly close orbit around its host star. Only the fourth object of its kind ever found, the planet could reveal clues as to how planets such as these form.
Astronomy
Nov 26, 2024
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Three ways to track Venusquakes, from balloons to satellites
Instruments aboard robotic landers have measured seismicity on the moon and Mars, helping researchers learn about the inner workings of those celestial bodies. But the internal makeup of Venus is still not known, in part ...
Planetary Sciences
Nov 26, 2024
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Magnetically driven vortices may be generating Earth-size concentrations of hydrocarbon haze at Jupiter's poles
While Jupiter's Great Red Spot has been a constant feature of the planet for centuries, University of California, Berkeley, astronomers have discovered equally large spots at the planet's north and south poles that appear ...
Planetary Sciences
Nov 26, 2024
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Ultrawide binary objects in the Kuiper belt may not have come from the earliest solar system, research suggests
Trying to understand the makeup and evolution of the solar system's Kuiper belt has kept researchers busy since it was hypothesized soon after the discovery of Pluto in 1930. In particular, binary pairs of objects there are ...
More news
Uranus's swaying moons could help spacecraft seek out hidden oceans
Earth-bound asteroids 'could be tracked more precisely' with new equation
Europa Clipper: Millions of miles down, instruments deploying
Niagara fireball event leads to discovery of tiniest known asteroid
Astronomers detect a distant young super-Jupiter exoplanet
Researchers probe ancient wood for clues about massive solar storms
Making Mars's moons: Supercomputers offer 'disruptive' new explanation
Young planet discovery could provide new insight into planet formation
NASA ocean world explorers have to swim before they can fly
Hollywood techniques help NASA visualize supercomputing data
Citizen scientists help explain magenta aurora over Japan
Other news
Tiny dancers: Scientists synchronize bacterial motion
Chemical structure's carbon capture ability doubled by new research
Peat-bog fungi produce substances that kill tuberculosis-causing bacteria
Enzyme study sheds light on the molecular mechanism behind 'sleepiness'
Imaging synaptic vesicles in 3D: Researchers use cryo-electron tomography to uncover details of molecular structure
Decoding protein interactions to better understand how mutations contribute to disease
New lunar map can help guide future sample return missions
What's behind the Martian methane mystery?
A new way to detect daisy worlds
Solar wind power likely governs Uranus' thermosphere temperature
