https://phys.org/space-news/planetary-sciences en-us Planetary science and exoplanets exploration news stories and features from Phys.org Four and a half billion years ago, our solar system was a cloud of gas and dust swirling around the sun, until gas began to condense and accrete along with dust to form asteroids and planets. What did this cosmic nursery, known as a protoplanetary disk, look like, and how was it structured? https://phys.org/news/2024-06-iron-meteorites-hint-infant-solar.html Planetary Sciences Thu, 20 Jun 2024 11:41:04 EDT news638102461 Titan, Saturn's largest moon, is the only other planetary body in the solar system that currently hosts active rivers, lakes, and seas. These otherworldly river systems are thought to be filled with liquid methane and ethane that flows into wide lakes and seas, some as large as the Great Lakes on Earth. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-titan-strong-erode-coastlines-lakes.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 19 Jun 2024 14:00:01 EDT news638004482 Earth's protective atmosphere has sheltered life for billions of years, creating a haven where evolution produced complex lifeforms like us. The ozone layer plays a critical role in shielding the biosphere from deadly UV radiation. It blocks 99% of the sun's powerful UV output. Earth's magnetosphere also shelters us. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-earth-atmosphere-defense-nearby-supernovae.html Astronomy Planetary Sciences Wed, 19 Jun 2024 12:29:53 EDT news638018990 Scientists around the world are constantly on the hunt for planets outside our solar system that could potentially provide a habitable environment for life. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-earth-small-planets.html Planetary Sciences Tue, 18 Jun 2024 12:17:05 EDT news637931822 A discovery by researchers at the University of Houston has revealed a massive energy imbalance on Saturn, shedding new light on planetary science and evolution and challenging existing climate models for the solar system's gas giants. The findings appear in the publication Nature Communications. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-scientists-massive-energy-imbalance-saturn.html Planetary Sciences Tue, 18 Jun 2024 11:31:04 EDT news637929061 If liquid water exists today on Mars, it may be too deep underground to detect with traditional methods used on Earth. But listening to earthquakes that occur on Mars—or marsquakes—could offer a new tool in the search, according to a team led by Penn State scientists. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-marsquakes-reveal-liquid-underground-red.html Planetary Sciences Tue, 18 Jun 2024 09:59:04 EDT news637923542 A research team led by Prof. Wang Wenzhong from the School of Earth and Space Sciences of the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), in collaboration with international scholars, studied the fractionation behavior of nitrogen isotopes during the accretionary evolution of terrestrial planets. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-uncover-nitrogen-early-evolution-earth.html Planetary Sciences Mon, 17 Jun 2024 11:03:03 EDT news637840981 A multi-institutional team of planetary scientists has learned more about the early composition of the solar system by studying a meteorite named Northwest Africa 14250. In their study, published in the journal Science Advances, the group used a scanning tunneling microscope to learn more about the isotopic makeup of clasts inside the sample. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-meteorite-northwest-africa-reveals-composition.html Planetary Sciences Mon, 17 Jun 2024 10:30:01 EDT news637838534 Research staff at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya—BarcelonaTech (UPC) and the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (CNS-BSC) have analyzed historical observations since the 17th century and developed numerical models to explain the longevity and nature of Jupiter's Great Red Spot. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-age-jupiter-great-red.html Planetary Sciences Mon, 17 Jun 2024 10:00:04 EDT news637837201 For more than a decade, Western University planetary geologist Gordon "Oz" Osinski has led expeditions to Kamestastin Lake in Labrador. The environment is a perfect training ground because the properties and rock formations—created by the violent impact (and extreme heat) of an asteroid 36 million years ago—uniquely mimic the surface on the moon. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-quebec-lake-meteorite-impact-yields.html Planetary Sciences Fri, 14 Jun 2024 11:50:01 EDT news637584160 An international team of astronomers reports the discovery of a new Earth-sized exoplanet that orbits an ultracool dwarf star located just 54.6 light years away. The newfound alien world, designated SPECULOOS-3 b, is slightly smaller but much hotter than our planet. The finding was reported in a paper published May 15 in the journal Nature Astronomy. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-astronomers-earth-sized-exoplanet-orbiting.html Planetary Sciences Fri, 14 Jun 2024 09:23:47 EDT news637575824 The small footprint and dim light of white dwarfs, remnants of stars that have burned through their fuel, may make excellent backdrops for studying planets with enough water to harbor life. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-watery-planets-orbiting-dead-stars.html Astrobiology Planetary Sciences Thu, 13 Jun 2024 16:46:04 EDT news637515961 Originally thought of as little more than a route clear of rover-slowing boulders, Neretva Vallis has provided a bounty of geologic options for the science team. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-nasa-perseverance-fords-ancient-river.html Planetary Sciences Thu, 13 Jun 2024 13:45:38 EDT news637505134 Researchers discovered mini-Neptunes around four red dwarfs using observations from a global network of ground-based telescopes and the TESS space telescope. These four mini-Neptunes are close to their parent stars, and the three of them are likely to be in eccentric orbits. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-mysterious-mini-neptunes.html Planetary Sciences Thu, 13 Jun 2024 11:13:03 EDT news637495981 Using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and ESA's (European Space Agency's) XMM-Newton, astronomers are exploring whether nearby stars could host habitable exoplanets, based on whether they emit radiation that could destroy potential conditions for life as we know it. This type of research will help guide observations with the next generation of telescopes aiming to take the first images of planets like Earth. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-hot-nasa-chandra-habitability-exoplanets.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 12 Jun 2024 16:03:03 EDT news637426981 Researchers from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and Johns Hopkins University have unlocked new secrets about the interiors of super-Earth exoplanets, potentially revolutionizing our understanding of these distant worlds. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-magnesium-oxide-dynamic-transition-super.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 12 Jun 2024 13:01:03 EDT news637416061 A surprising yellow haze of sulfur dioxide in the atmosphere of a gas "dwarf" exoplanet about 96 light years away from our own solar system makes the planet a prime target for scientists trying to understand how worlds are formed. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-small-cool-sulfurous-exoplanet-recipe.html Planetary Sciences Mon, 10 Jun 2024 15:39:25 EDT news637252763 Astronomers have captured what appears to be a snapshot of a massive collision of giant asteroids in Beta Pictoris, a neighboring star system known for its early age and tumultuous planet-forming activity. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-webb-telescope-reveals-asteroid-collision.html Astronomy Planetary Sciences Mon, 10 Jun 2024 12:20:01 EDT news636985532 For the first time, water frost has been detected on the colossal volcanoes on Mars, which are the largest mountains in the solar system. The international team led by the University of Bern used high-resolution color images from the Bernese Mars camera, CaSSIS, onboard the European Space Agency's ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter spacecraft. Understanding where water can be found, and how it is transported, is relevant for future Mars missions and possible human exploration. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-frost-solar-tallest-volcanoes-mars.html Planetary Sciences Mon, 10 Jun 2024 11:00:01 EDT news636985512 Mars polar ice caps were one of the first Earth-like characteristics identified on Mars. Since the development of film in the 19th Century, researchers expected to see Earth-like activity, such as polar ice flow. Mars, however, doesn't follow expectations. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-fifty-year-mystery-mars-polar.html Planetary Sciences Mon, 10 Jun 2024 09:20:04 EDT news637230001 Around two million years ago, Earth was a very different place, with our early human ancestors living alongside saber-toothed tigers, mastodons, and enormous rodents. And, depending on where they were, they may have been cold: Earth had fallen into a deep freeze, with multiple ice ages coming and going until about 12,000 years ago. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-astrophysicists-likelihood-earth-exposed-cold.html Astronomy Planetary Sciences Mon, 10 Jun 2024 06:13:39 EDT news637218808 While roboticists have developed increasingly sophisticated systems over the past decades, ensuring that these systems can autonomously operate in real-world settings without mishaps often proves challenging. This is particularly difficult when these robots are designed to be deployed in complex environments, including space and other planets. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-method-multi-robot-teams-autonomously.html Space Exploration Planetary Sciences Sun, 09 Jun 2024 10:30:01 EDT news636981562 On Feb. 22, a lunar lander named Odysseus touched down near the moon's South Pole and popped out four antennas to record radio waves around the surface—a moment University of Colorado Boulder astrophysicist Jack Burns hails as the "dawn of radio astronomy from the moon." https://phys.org/news/2024-06-scientists-earth-radio-moon.html Space Exploration Planetary Sciences Fri, 07 Jun 2024 14:54:29 EDT news636990793 Cornell University researchers have provided a simple and comprehensive—if less dramatic—explanation for bright radar reflections initially interpreted as liquid water beneath the ice cap on Mars' south pole. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-lake-mars-ice-cap.html Astrobiology Planetary Sciences Fri, 07 Jun 2024 14:00:01 EDT news636974701 In a paper published in Geophysical Research Letters, researchers have discovered that the turbulence in the thermosphere exhibits the same physical laws as the wind in the lower atmosphere. Furthermore, wind in the thermosphere predominantly rotates in a cyclonic direction, in that it rotates counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-earth-space-turbulence.html Planetary Sciences Fri, 07 Jun 2024 13:42:03 EDT news636986521 Planets form in disks of gas and dust, orbiting young stars. The MIRI Mid-INfrared Disk Survey (MINDS), led by Thomas Henning from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA) in Heidelberg, Germany, aims to establish a representative disk sample. By exploring their chemistry and physical properties with MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) on board the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the collaboration links those disks to the properties of planets potentially forming there. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-jwst-large-variety-carbon-rich.html Astronomy Planetary Sciences Thu, 06 Jun 2024 14:00:01 EDT news636875821 New research led by Lia Siegelman, a physical oceanographer at UC San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography, shows that the roiling storms at the planet Jupiter's polar regions are powered by processes known to physicists studying Earth's oceans and atmosphere. The geophysical commonalities spanning the 452 million miles between the two planets could even help facilitate an improved understanding of those processes on Earth. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-nasa-satellite-images-cyclones-jupiter.html Planetary Sciences Thu, 06 Jun 2024 05:00:01 EDT news636816542 A new method of detecting high-frequency gravitational waves (HFGWs) has been proposed by a research team led by Prof. Tao Liu, Associate Professor from the Department of Physics at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). https://phys.org/news/2024-06-approach-leverages-planetary-magnetospheres-high.html Astronomy Planetary Sciences Wed, 05 Jun 2024 11:13:03 EDT news636804781 A rare exoplanet that should have been stripped down to bare rock by its nearby host star's intense radiation somehow grew a puffy atmosphere instead—the latest in a string of discoveries forcing scientists to rethink theories about how planets age and die in extreme environments. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-weird-planet-retains-atmosphere-nearby.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 05 Jun 2024 11:00:01 EDT news636795241 Ever since aurora chasers discovered Steve, a mysterious ribbon of purple light in the night sky, scientists have wondered whether it might have a secret twin. Now, thanks to a photographer's keen eye, and data from ESA's Swarm satellites, we may have found it. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-swarm-satellites-aurora-chasers-steve.html Astronomy Planetary Sciences Tue, 04 Jun 2024 10:48:03 EDT news636716881