Astronomers identify signature of Earth-eating stars

(Phys.org) —Some Sun-like stars are 'Earth-eaters.' During their development they ingest large amounts of the rocky material from which 'terrestrial' planets like Earth, Mars and Venus are made.

How mighty Jupiter could have changed Earth's habitability

Is Jupiter a friendly planet, Earth's enemy, or perhaps both? For decades, scientists have talked about how the giant gas planet keeps some asteroids from striking our small world, while others have pointed out that Jupiter's ...

New study finds 'geologic clock' that helps determine Moon's age

An international team of planetary scientists determined that the Moon formed nearly 100 million years after the start of the solar system (4.470 billion years ago), according to a paper to be published April 3 in Nature. ...

Kepler finds a very wobbly planet

(Phys.org) —Imagine living on a planet with seasons so erratic you would hardly know whether to wear Bermuda shorts or a heavy overcoat. That is the situation on a weird, wobbly world found by NASA's planet-hunting Kepler ...

Newfound planet is Earth-mass but gassy

An international team of astronomers has discovered the first Earth-mass planet that transits, or crosses in front of, its host star. KOI-314c is the lightest planet to have both its mass and physical size measured. Surprisingly, ...

Kepler 78b exoplanet is Earth-like in mass and size

In August, MIT researchers identified an exoplanet with an extremely brief orbital period: The team found that Kepler 78b, a small, intensely hot planet 700 light-years from Earth, circles its star in just 8.5 hours—lightning-quick, ...

Researchers find phosphate in more soluble form on Mars

(Phys.org) —A trio of researchers at the University of Nevada has found that phosphate found in minerals on Mars, is far more soluble than it is in natural Earth minerals. In their paper published in the journal Nature ...

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