The sun is the reason life exists on our small, blue planet. It provides solar radiation that warms the planet and ignites intricate biochemical processes like photosynthesis, producing oxygen for life to breathe. However, ...
Astronomy
Sep 15, 2026
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For decades, astronomers have identified collisions between two neutron stars through bursts of gamma rays that can disappear in less than two seconds. But some of these violent encounters may also reveal themselves through ...
Astronomy
Sep 30, 2026
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This summer, exoplanet science—the study of planets orbiting stars beyond our sun—took a big step forward. Reports of helium gas escaping from the atmosphere of LHS 1140b propelled this exoplanet from the pages of scientific ...
Astrobiology
Sep 29, 2026
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47
In May 2024, Earth experienced its most intense geomagnetic storm since the Halloween storms of 2003. This "superstorm" filled night skies in many parts of the world with colorful aurorae, and it disrupted some infrastructure, ...
Planetary Sciences
Sep 14, 2026
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46
The Mars we know today is a cold, dry world of dust and rocks. However, around 3.8–3.6 billion years ago, it may have looked very different. Geological and mineral evidence suggests that, in its distant past, the planet experienced ...
Astrobiology
Oct 1, 2026
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Studying exoplanets has given astronomers insights into the characteristics that could help them find life beyond Earth. For years, astronomers thought an exoplanet's location in a star's habitable zone was enough to make ...
Astronomy
Sep 23, 2026
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41
Scientists have helped solve a longstanding mystery about how Earth remained habitable after oxygen first accumulated in its atmosphere more than 2 billion years ago, providing evidence that ancient ocean chemistry sustained ...
Astrobiology
Sep 29, 2026
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41
Allen Schnibben's interest in space started when he was a child. "I picked up some books about the solar system when I was in elementary school. In middle school, I got a telescope and I started observing the night sky as ...
Astronomy
Oct 6, 2026
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40
The surface of Mercury is filled with craters, ridges and steep cliffs. Over billions of years, as the planet's interior cooled, the planet also shrank. Just as the skin of a drying fruit wrinkles when what is inside it shrinks, ...
Planetary Sciences
Sep 13, 2026
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39
Launched on Oct. 20, 2018, the joint ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission has traveled for almost eight years, using a carefully planned but eventful sequence of planetary flybys and solar-electric propulsion to gradually approach ...
Planetary Sciences
Sep 15, 2026
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