Related topics: earth · stars · planets · solar system

When did the first exocontinents appear in the universe?

On Earth, continents are likely necessary to support life. Continents "float" on top of the Earth's viscous mantle, and heat from the planet's core keeps the mantle from solidifying and locking the continents into place.

Research suggests Mars has far fewer minerals than Earth

Nearly 6,000 different minerals are known to exist on Earth, but after more than 50 years of investigations, only 161 minerals have been recorded on Mars—a dramatically lower number for a planet that shares much in common ...

'Sandwich' discovery offers new explanation for planet formation

Scientists have made a new discovery on how small planets might form. Researchers at the University of Warwick investigated the "birth environment" of planets—areas of gas and dust that swirl around a central star—known ...

ALMA digs deeper into the mystery of planet formation

An international research team used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to observe disks around 19 protostars with a very high resolution to search for the earliest signs of planet formation. This survey ...

How did Earth get its water?

Earth's water could have originated from interactions between the hydrogen-rich atmospheres and magma oceans of the planetary embryos that comprised Earth's formative years, according to new work from Carnegie Science's Anat ...

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