Tag Archives: Planet

Thirteen years into its mission, NASA’s Curiosity rover is still uncovering Martian mysteries — and learning to do more with less. Since landing in Gale Crater in 2012, Curiosity has traveled more than 22 miles (35 kilometers), studying rock layers, analyzing soil and revealing Mars’ ancient past, including signs that the planet once harbored liquid water, a thicker atmosphere and …

Recent simulations and research have unveiled a fascinating new insight into the history of the solar system’s terrestrial planets. For years, scientists speculated about how the rocky planets—Earth, Mars, Venus, and the mysterious long-lost world, Theia—formed and evolved in relation to one another. However, a recent study published in The Astrophysical Journal has provided new findings suggesting that these planets, …

When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. New research suggests that most of the solar system’s inner rocky planets once orbited the sun in perfect harmony. | Credit: SCIEPRO/Getty Images Four of the solar system‘s terrestrial planets, including Earth and a long-lost world, likely started life waltzing around the sun …

Four of the solar system‘s terrestrial planets, including Earth and a long-lost world, likely started life waltzing around the sun to a fixed rhythm, according to a new study. The findings also suggest that those planets formed earlier than previously thought. Astronomers have been increasingly interested in how planetary systems change their internal architecture on cosmic timescales, motivated by several …

It Shouldn’t Exist: Astronomers Discover a Planet Orbiting the “Wrong Way”  SciTechDaily Source link

The saga surrounding Neptune-size “super-Earth” exoplanet K2-18 b just got a whole lot more interesting. For a quick recap, this is the world a team of scientists recently suggested could host life — to the dismay of other scientists in the community, who felt the announcement failed to include necessary caution. While signs of life on the world have failed …

Martian glaciers are mostly pure ice across the Red Planet, suggesting they might potentially be useful resources for any explorers that might land there one day, a new study finds. For decades, scientists have often seen glaciers coated in dust on the slopes of the mountains of Mars. Previous research suggested these were either glaciers that were comprised mostly of …

Astronomers discovered a new rogue planet lurking in archival data gathered by the Hubble Space Telescope, and the find is thanks to a little serendipity — and a little help from the genius himself, Albert Einstein. Rogue, or “free-floating,” planets are worlds that don’t orbit a star. They earn their rogue status when they are ejected from their home systems …

A tiny red star not far from Earth is turning out to be a heavyweight in the search for rocky worlds. Nestled just 35 light-years away in space, the star L 98-59 is home to a tight-knit pack of exoplanets, including one that now appears to orbit at just the right distance to harbor liquid water.  Using data from NASA’s …

A tiny red star not far from Earth is turning out to be a heavyweight in the search for rocky worlds. Nestled just 35 light-years away in space, the star L 98-59 is home to a tight-knit pack of exoplanets, including one that now appears to orbit at just the right distance to harbor liquid water. Using data from NASA’s …