Related topics: earth · stars · planets · solar system

Astronomers reveal a new link between water and planet formation

Researchers have found water vapor in the disk around a young star exactly where planets may be forming. Water is a key ingredient for life on Earth and is also thought to play a significant role in planet formation, yet ...

Impact Craters: Can they help us find life elsewhere?

When we look at the moon, either through a pair of binoculars, a telescope, or past footage from the Apollo missions, we see a landscape that's riddled with what appear to be massive sinkholes. But these "sinkholes" aren't ...

Astronomers discover first step toward planet formation

Solving the mystery of how planets like Earth were formed is an important question for understanding the origin of life. Planets are thought to form when interstellar dust and gas collect in a protoplanetary disk surrounding ...

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 ...

page 1 from 19