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Planetary Sciences news
Rubin Observatory reveals its first dwarf planet candidate in our solar system
Scientists may add a new dwarf planet to the official roster of our solar system. The distant, icy body, provisionally dubbed 2026 ED138, orbits our system beyond Pluto. It was spotted earlier this month by a scientist combing ...
Planetary Sciences
10 hours ago
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Double debris disk orbiting a dead star hints at our solar system's future
Astronomers using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (ESO's VLT) have found a rare disk of debris around a dead star that provides a glimpse of what may happen to our solar system. Unlike in similar ...
Astronomy
10 hours ago
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First light: Hera resolves two asteroids instead of one
The European Space Agency's Hera spacecraft for planetary defense has resolved its two target asteroids separately for the first time, revealing the binary nature of the Didymos system, currently some 197 million km (122 ...
Space Exploration
14 hours ago
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Perseverance offers clues to protect crews from ultrafine Mars dust
Over 1,645 Martian days, NASA's Perseverance Mars rover measured the fine and ultrafine Martian dust particles found clinging to samples of spacesuit materials that are carried aboard the rover, including particles small ...
Space Exploration
16 hours ago
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Earth may have formed much of its water as the planet grew
Earth may have produced much of its water during the planet's formation, as rocky pebbles reacted with the hydrogen-rich atmosphere surrounding the young planet, according to new research published in Nature Geoscience. The ...
Astrobiology
17 hours ago
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Webb links interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS to worlds beyond Neptune through similar ice signatures
A Southwest Research Institute–led study used NASA's James Webb Space Telescope to examine ice grains streaming from interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, just the third object from beyond our solar system ever identified. The observations ...
Astronomy
18 hours ago
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27 exoplanet targets for the world's first private space telescope
The Lazuli Space Telescope will be the first private space telescope. It's the brainchild of Eric Schmidt, Google's former CEO. It will have a 3-meter mirror (9.8 feet), larger than Hubble's 2.4-meter mirror (7.9 feet), and ...
Planetary Sciences
Oct 26, 2026
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Clouds on a lava planet challenge what astronomers expected
A rocky lava planet once thought to be too extreme to have an atmosphere appears to be wrapped in one with a reflective layer of vaporized silicate mineral clouds, the same family of compounds that make up quartz and sand.
Planetary Sciences
Oct 26, 2026
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Laser-blasted plasma shows how instabilities could heat the sun's corona
From its visible surface, the sun radiates heat at a relatively cool temperature of 5,800 Kelvin. Yet within the thin outer layer of the sun's atmosphere known as the corona, electrons can reach temperatures of millions of ...
How flare ribbons reveal hidden solar explosions on the sun
Many topics in astronomy and astrophysics are esoteric. There's not much of a relationship between something like the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way and the life of a regular person going about their ...
Astronomy
Oct 24, 2026
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Stellar collision may explain why Orion Nebula's planet-forming disks appear younger than its stars
The Orion Nebula is a large star-forming region visible to the naked eye. Some of the young stars in the nebula are surrounded by disks of gas and dust in which planets form. Radiation from the massive central star, 1 Ori ...
Astronomy
Oct 23, 2026
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Artemis I: Crystals of experimental detectors record radiation doses near the moon
Do cosmic radiation doses near the moon differ significantly from those received by astronauts in low Earth orbit? Experimental lithium fluoride detectors, installed aboard the Orion spacecraft during the Artemis I mission, ...
Space Exploration
Oct 23, 2026
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Pedal to the metal: NASA's Psyche heads toward asteroid belt
With a successful Mars gravity assist in its rearview mirror, NASA's Psyche spacecraft has fired up its thrusters and is accelerating toward the metal-rich asteroid of the same name. During the first leg of its journey, following ...
Planetary Sciences
Oct 23, 2026
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A mineral from the inside of planets reveals a surprising lesson: How you push matters
In the deepest region of the Earth's mantle, just above the core, much of the material consists of crystals of magnesium oxide. In larger rocky exoplanets called super-Earths, the higher pressures in the lower mantle may ...
Planetary Sciences
Oct 23, 2026
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Curtain-like plasma structures explain solar jets' apparent spinning in simulations
An international team of scientists from the University of Sheffield and the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, led by a postdoctoral research fellow from the University of Newcastle, Australia, has discovered that solar jets ...
Astronomy
Oct 22, 2026
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Are 'mega-Earths' real? Stellar activity may explain these oversized rocky worlds
A new study suggests that some of the heaviest rocky planets ever reported may not be as heavy as they look. These so-called 'mega-Earths,' rocky planets weighing more than about 10 Earths, could be an illusion created by ...
NASA's CASALS instrument bridges gaps in 3D maps of Earth's surface
A team of researchers at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) has developed a new instrument designed to eliminate blind spots between lines of lidar data on Earth's surface. Built with support from NASA's Earth Science ...
Planetary Sciences
Oct 21, 2026
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Reexamined Viking 2 signal reveals possible marsquake from region active decades later
Earthquakes and the seismic waves they generate provide some of the best clues to Earth's interior. To extend that success to other worlds, scientists placed seismometers on the Apollo missions to the moon and on the Viking ...
Planetary Sciences
Oct 21, 2026
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Rare solar radiation storm gives scientists clearest picture yet of flight risks
The most comprehensive data set ever collected from Earth's atmosphere during a solar radiation event has highlighted the importance of better-coordinated radiation monitoring for aviation safety, according to new research ...
Planetary Sciences
Oct 20, 2026
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'Terror of kings': Why the 1066 appearance of Halley's Comet terrified the medieval world
A sequence on the Bayeux Tapestry shows King Harold alongside a crowd gazing at the sky, beneath the embroidered caption Isti mirant stella ("those people marvel at the star"). Above Harold sits Halley's Comet, with ghostlike ...
Astronomy
Oct 20, 2026
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More news
Giant canyon on Mars is still tectonically active today
Lucy mission marks 5 years of discoveries
Euclid discovers its first new comet 810 million miles from Earth
Planetary 'twins' Uranus and Neptune may have different origin stories
Auroral structure could be caused by bouncing electrons
Enigmatic Mercury will remain a puzzle until someone sends a lander
Japan to launch world-first mission to moon of Mars
Japan to launch historic round-trip mission to Mars moon
Japan's MMX mission aims to swipe soil samples from Mars's moon Phobos
Japan to launch spacecraft on a mission to get samples from a Martian moon
Simulations explore nuclear mitigation of asteroid threats
Other news
Metal-free magnetic sensor can be safely implanted for wireless monitoring
Bonobo females hunt more than males, decade-long study reveals
121-million-year-old fossils suggest Longipteryx had no tail feathers
New converter could bridge light wavelength gap in quantum communications
Counteranion captures reactants to boost light-driven chemistry in dilute solutions
Light-controlled brake makes random molecular motion 300,000 times slower
Lunar fault maps reveal how much the moon is shrinking
Space waves reveal where Earth's magnetic shield is under pressure
New solar model maps sun more accurately by checking far-side activity
The dying sun could tear the solar system apart sooner than thought
Museum visits are generally not perceived as boring, study finds
How we rewrite memories of fallen artists—but not their art
