The mystery of some lava-like flows on Mars has been solved by scientists who say they are caused not by lava but by mud.
Space Exploration
May 18, 2020
22
2204
A Southwest Research Institute scientist modeled the atmosphere of Mars to help determine that salty pockets of water present on the Red Planet are likely not habitable by life as we know it on Earth. A team that also included ...
Astronomy
May 11, 2020
1
311
Mars had a global magnetic field much earlier—and much later—in the planet's history than scientists have previously known.
Astronomy
May 1, 2020
14
1719
Continued analysis of Parker Solar Probe data is starting to create a clearer picture of the sun's magnetic activity, which may bolster our ability to predict dangerous solar events.
Astronomy
Apr 30, 2020
14
509
For the first time, NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory tracked water loss from an interstellar comet as it approached and rounded the Sun. The object, 2I/Borisov, traveled through the solar system in late 2019.
Space Exploration
Apr 27, 2020
0
213
Philosopher Nicholas Rescher once wrote, "Scientific discoveries are often made not on the basis of some well-contrived plan of investigation, but through some stroke of sheer luck."
Astronomy
Apr 21, 2020
1
771
A galactic visitor entered our solar system last year—interstellar comet 2I/Borisov. When astronomers pointed the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) toward the comet on 15 and 16 December 2019, for the ...
Astronomy
Apr 20, 2020
2
4251
When a fire extinguisher is opened, the compressed carbon dioxide forms ice crystals around the nozzle, providing a visual example of the physics principle that gases and plasmas cool as they expand. When our sun expels plasma ...
Space Exploration
Apr 15, 2020
17
661
Since its discovery in 2017, an air of mystery has surrounded the first known interstellar object to visit our solar system, an elongated, cigar-shaped body named 'Oumuamua (Hawaiian for "a messenger from afar arriving first").
Astronomy
Apr 13, 2020
16
1353
The upper layers in the atmospheres of gas giants—Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune—are hot, just like Earth's. But unlike Earth, the Sun is too far from these outer planets to account for the high temperatures. Their ...
Astronomy
Apr 7, 2020
20
1569
