New pics of Phobos from China's Tianwen-1 orbiter

Two fundamental factors affect all astrophotography—timing and location. If a camera happens to be at the right place at the right time, it can capture images that have never been seen before. And with the proliferation ...

Researchers explore how impacts 'break in' a new planet

The harder you hit something—a ball, a walnut, a geode—the more likely it is to break open. Or, if it does not break open, it's more likely to at least lose a little bit of its structural integrity, the way new baseball ...

Why Jupiter doesn't have rings like Saturn

Because it's bigger, Jupiter ought to have larger, more spectacular rings than Saturn has. But new UC Riverside research shows Jupiter's massive moons prevent that vision from lighting up the night sky.

Modeling electrolyte transport in water-rich exoplanets

Oceans on water-rich exoplanets may be enriched with electrolytes, including salts such as sodium chloride, suggests a modeling study published in Nature Communications. The research proposes electrolytes can be transported ...

Software upgrade for 19-year-old martian water-spotter

The MARSIS instrument on ESA's Mars Express spacecraft, famous for its role in the discovery of signs of liquid water on the Red Planet, is receiving a major software upgrade that will allow it to see beneath the surfaces ...

These are the best places to search for habitable exomoons

Our solar system contains eight planets and more than 200 moons. The large majority of those moons have no chance of being habitable, but some of them—Europa and Enceladus, for example—are strong candidates in the search ...

Moons may yield clues to what makes planets habitable

Earth's moon is vitally important in making Earth the planet we know today: The moon controls the length of the day and ocean tides, which affect the biological cycles of lifeforms on our planet. The moon also contributes ...

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