Page 2 - Planets Moons News Today

High-precision noble gas analyses indicate that solar wind particles from our primordial Sun were encased in the Earths core over 4.5 billion years ago. Researchers from Heidelberg University have concluded that the particles made their way into the overlying rock mantle over millions of years. The scientists found solar noble gases in an iron meteorite they studied. Because of their chemical composition, such meteorites are often used as natural models for the Earths metallic core.

Astronomers have identified more than 4,000, and counting, confirmed exoplanets -- planets orbiting stars other than the sun -- but only a fraction have the potential to sustain life. Now, new research from UBCs Okanagan campus is using the geology of early planet formation to help identify those that may be capable of supporting life.

 E-Mail Credit: NASA and JPL-Caltech. One of the great mysteries of modern space science is neatly summed up by the view from NASAs Perseverance, which just landed on Mars: Today its a desert planet, and yet the rover is sitting right next to an ancient river delta. The apparent contradiction has puzzled scientists for decades, especially because at the same time that Mars had flowing rivers, it was getting less than a third as much sunshine as we enjoy today on Earth. But a new study led by U...

 E-Mail COLUMBUS, Ohio - In the continuing search for dark matter in our universe, scientists believe they have found a unique and powerful detector: exoplanets. In a new paper, two astrophysicists suggest dark matter could be detected by measuring the effect it has on the temperature of exoplanets, which are planets outside our solar system. This could provide new insights into dark matter, the mysterious substance that cant be directly observed, but which makes up roughly 80% of the mass of ...

 E-Mail Understanding whether Mars was once able to support life has been a major driving force for Mars research over the past 50 years. To decipher the planets ancient climate and habitability, researchers look to the rock record - a physical record of ancient surface processes which reflect the environment and the prevailing climate at the time the rocks were deposited. In a new paper published in JGR: Planets, researchers on the NASA-JPL Mars Science Laboratory mission used the Curiosity ...

 E-Mail IMAGE: Scientists from the Skoltech Space Center (SSC) have developed nanosatellite interaction algorithms for scientific measurements using a tetrahedral orbital formation of CubeSats that exchange data and apply interpolation algorithms to... view more  Credit: Skoltech Scientists from the Skoltech Space Center (SSC) have developed nanosatellite interaction algorithms for scientific measurements using a tetrahedral orbital formation of CubeSats that exchange data and apply i...

Credit: UNSW Sydney The search for life on other planets has received a major boost after scientists revealed the spectral signatures of almost 1000 atmospheric molecules that may be involved in the production or consumption of phosphine, a study led by UNSW Sydney revealed. Scientists have long conjectured that phosphine - a chemical compound made of one phosphorous atom surrounded by three hydrogen atoms (PH3) - may indicate evidence of life if found in the atmospheres of small rocky planets ...

 E-Mail IMAGE: A flake of red peels away from Jupiters Great Red Spot during an encounter with a smaller anticyclone, as seen by the Juno spacecrafts high resolution JunoCam on 12 February... view more  Credit: AGU/Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets WASHINGTON-- The stormy, centuries-old maelstrom of Jupiters Great Red Spot was shaken but not destroyed by a series of anticyclones that crashed into it over the past few years. The smaller storms cause chunks of red clouds to flake...

Loading video... VIDEO: A study conducted by researchers from the Laboratory for Planetary and Atmospheric Physics of the University of Liege, shows for the first time global views of a dawn storm, a... view more  Credit: @University of Liège The storms, which consist of brightenings and broadenings of the dawn flank of an oval of auroral activity that encircles Jupiters poles, evolve in a pattern surprisingly reminiscent of familiar surges in the aurora that undulate across Earths pola...

 E-Mail IMAGE: Interior water ocean worlds like Saturns moon, Enceladus, are prevalent throughout the universe. New research from Southwest Research Institute suggests that layers of rock and ice may shield life within... view more  Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Southwest Research Institute SAN ANTONIO -- March 16, 2021 -- One of the most profound discoveries in planetary science over the past 25 years is that worlds with oceans beneath layers of rock and ice are common in our solar system...