Astronomers have discovered black holes ranging from a few times the sun's mass to tens of billions. Now a group of scientists has predicted that NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope could find a class of "featherweight" ...
Astronomy
May 7, 2024
0
140
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 ...
Planetary Sciences
Feb 29, 2024
0
3841
A recently discovered solar system with six confirmed exoplanets and a possible seventh is boosting astronomers' knowledge of planet formation and evolution. Relying on a globe-spanning arsenal of observatories and instruments, ...
Astronomy
Jan 26, 2024
3
161
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 ...
Astrobiology
Jan 11, 2024
0
6
Scientists have discovered a rare sight in a nearby star system: Six planets orbiting their central star in a rhythmic beat. The planets move in an orbital waltz that repeats itself so precisely that it can be readily set ...
Planetary Sciences
Nov 29, 2023
0
736
They reveal the origin of wine, the age of bones and fossils, and they serve as diagnostic tools in medicine. Isotopes and isotopologues—molecules that differ only in the composition of their isotopes—also play an increasingly ...
Astronomy
Nov 7, 2023
0
100
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 ...
Astronomy
Oct 6, 2023
0
1389
In 1960, while preparing for the first meeting on the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), legendary astronomer and SETI pioneer Dr. Frank Drake unveiled his probabilistic equation for estimating the number of ...
Astrobiology
Sep 29, 2023
7
67
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.
Astronomy
Sep 20, 2023
1
8
Roughly 5 billion years ago Earth was in the process of forming. Gas and dust gathered with the young sun's protoplanetary disk, likely nudged a bit by the resonant gravitational pull of Jupiter and other large worlds. One ...
Planetary Sciences
Sep 13, 2023
0
20
