Mercury's surface is riddled with wrinkles, evidence of a once-larger planet that has shrunk over time. A new study finds that Mercury may have contracted 10% to 30% more than previously thought—a loss of nearly 12 miles ...
Planetary Sciences
Sep 10, 2026
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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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37
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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A 178-year-old mystery surrounding one of the earliest recorded examples of space weather affecting technology has been solved by an international team led by Lancaster University.
Planetary Sciences
Sep 16, 2026
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34
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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29
It is thought the sun may have engulfed a super-Earth-sized planet early in its history. Now, a new study has gone a step further, suggesting that such an event may have left behind detectable clues inside the sun that could ...
Planetary Sciences
Sep 10, 2026
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28
Nitrogen is a key ingredient in the biomolecules that form the building blocks of life. Yet as an unbonded gas, it is far more likely to drift into space than to lock itself into solid compounds, making it difficult for astronomers ...
Mars is a terrible place to build a house. It's bitterly cold, blasted by radiation and a near vacuum. Not to mention that the building materials, even for a modest shelter, could spend months hurtling through space before ...
Space Exploration
Sep 10, 2026
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27
The sun is capable of great things. In massive eruptions, it repeatedly hurls particles and radiation into space. This solar bombardment can be dangerous for technical infrastructure on Earth: For example, satellites and ...
Planetary Sciences
Sep 10, 2026
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26
Seasonal changes redistribute enough water around Earth to shift the planet's center of mass back and forth by fractions of an inch relative to its geometric center. NASA scientists are on the case, tracking the oscillations ...
Planetary Sciences
17 hours ago
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