Lightning strikes were just as important as meteorites in creating the perfect conditions for life to emerge on Earth, geologists say.
Earth Sciences
Mar 16, 2021
19
684
(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists have found that calcium, aluminum-rich inclusions (CAIs), some of the oldest objects in the solar system, formed far away from our sun and then later fell back into the mid-plane of the solar system.
Astronomy
Mar 3, 2011
13
0
Around 250 million years ago, at the end of the Permian geologic period, there was a mass extinction so severe that it remains the most traumatic known species die-off in Earth's history. Although the cause of this event ...
Earth Sciences
Jan 9, 2012
1
0
Planets orbiting binary stars are in a tough situation: They have to contend with the gravitational pull of two separate stars. Planetary formation around a single star like our sun is relatively straightforward compared ...
Astronomy
Feb 2, 2023
1
70
About 7.5 billion years from now, our sun will have converted most of its hydrogen fuel into helium through fusion, and then burned most of that helium into carbon and oxygen. It will have swollen to a size large enough to ...
Astronomy
Sep 18, 2020
0
80
New theoretical modeling by Carnegie's Alan Boss provides clues to how the gas giant planets in our solar system—Jupiter and Saturn—might have formed and evolved. His work was published recently by the Astrophysical Journal.
Astronomy
Mar 5, 2013
0
4
Most galaxies possess a majestic spiral or elliptical structure. About a quarter of galaxies, though, defy such conventional, rounded aesthetics, instead sporting a messy, indefinable shape. Known as irregular galaxies, this ...
Astronomy
Jan 25, 2016
0
970
A unique stage of planetary system evolution has been imaged by astronomers, showing fast-moving carbon monoxide gas flowing away from a star system over 400 light years away, a discovery that provides an opportunity to study ...
Astronomy
Nov 30, 2020
4
241
Brown dwarfs, the larger cousins of giant planets, undergo atmospheric changes from cloudy to cloudless as they age and cool. A team of astronomers led by Carnegie's Jonathan Gagné measured for the first time the temperature ...
Astronomy
Feb 27, 2018
3
64
Stars like our sun end their lives as white dwarfs. Some of them are surrounded by a planetary nebula consisting of gas ejected by the dying star shortly before its death. An international research team led by Professor Klaus ...
Astronomy
Oct 11, 2023
0
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