Around 4.4 billion years ago, the early solar system resembled a game of space rock dodgeball, as massive asteroids and comets, and, later, smaller rocks and galactic debris pummeled the moon and other infant terrestrial ...
Planetary Sciences
Jul 7, 2022
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902
We're inching closer and closer to reliably detecting biosignatures on distant planets. Much of the focus is on determining which chemicals indicate life's presence.
Astrobiology
Nov 17, 2023
3
59
Water is abundant in the solar system. Even beyond Earth, scientists have detected ice on the moon, in Saturn's rings and in comets, liquid water on Mars and under the surface of Saturn's moon Enceladus, and traces of water ...
Space Exploration
Apr 21, 2021
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279
A study conducted by a team of international scientists has unveiled unprecedented insights into the nature of the asteroid Ryugu and shed light on the composition of water- and carbon-rich small bodies in the solar system. ...
Planetary Sciences
Dec 11, 2023
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99
Scientists have discovered a new type of star dust whose composition indicates that it formed during a rare form of nucleosynthesis (the process through which new atomic nuclei are created) and could shed new light on the ...
Astrobiology
Jul 12, 2021
1
41
Locals watched in awe as a fireball exploded and hundreds of meteorite fragments rained down on the city of Tatahouine, Tunisia, on June 27, 1931. Fittingly, the city later became a major filming location for the Star Wars ...
Astronomy
Dec 27, 2023
0
48
Planetary systems form out of the remnant gas and dust of a primordial star. The material collapses into a protoplanetary disk around the young star, and the clumps that form within the disk eventually become planets, asteroids, ...
Space Exploration
Apr 12, 2021
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19
Humankind's most distant outpost was recently captured crossing the face of our enormous and gleaming sun. The fleeting transit of the International Space Station was over in the blink of an eye, but Ian Griffin, Director ...
Space Exploration
Feb 28, 2019
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23
Astronomers are pretty sure they know where the moon came from. In the early solar system, a Mars-sized object dubbed Theia smashed into Earth. This cataclysmic collision knocked a huge mass of material into orbit, which ...
Planetary Sciences
Apr 4, 2024
1
37
On February 28, 2021, for the first time in 30 years, a meteorite fell in the U.K. and was later recovered by scientists. Today, there's an international effort to study this space rock and learn more about its place in the ...
Planetary Sciences
Mar 13, 2023
0
15
