Artist’s impression of the exoplanet Proxima Centauri b. Credit: ESO/M. KORNMESSER. In the quest for life beyond our solar system, a new study delves into the atmospheric dynamics of planet Proxima Centauri b, illuminating ozone’s pivotal role in shaping planetary climates. This research signifies a significant leap forward in our understanding of habitable exoplanets. The…
Category: Planets
TESS discovers a rocky planet that glows with molten lava as it's squeezed by its neighbors
Volcanic exoplanet illustration. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Dani Player UC Riverside astrophysicist Stephen Kane had to double-check his calculations. He wasn’t sure the planet he was studying could be as extreme as it seemed. Kane had never expected to learn that a planet in this faraway star system is covered with so many active volcanoes…
Study reveals mechanisms of hydrodynamic escape in low-mass exoplanets
Various driving mechanism affecting the hydrodynamic escapes in low-mass exoplanets. Credit: Chinese Academy of Sciences / Guo Jianheng. A study published in Nature Astronomy and conducted by Guo Jianheng from the Yunnan Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences offers a perspective on the violent atmospheric escape processes of low-mass exoplanets, specifically a process known…
Computer model helps support theory of asteroid Kamo'oalewa as ejecta from the moon
The location and topography of lunar crater Giordano Bruno. Left is a map of the lunar farside using the Lunar QuickMap. Right is the topographic map of GB crater from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) data. Credit: Nature Astronomy (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41550-024-02258-z A small international team of planetary scientists has found evidence supporting the…
New evidence found for Planet 9
A comparison of the orbital distributions from P9-inclusive (left) and P9-free (right) N−body simulations. Both panels depict the perihelion distance against the semi-major axis of orbital footprints of simulated TNOs with i lim = 24. Credit: arXiv (2024). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2404.11594 A small team of planetary scientists from the California Institute of Technology, Université Côte d’Azur…
The history of the young cold traps of the asteroid Ceres
Map of the north polar region of Ceres. The color areas are areas that are continuously shadowed over a Ceres year, and therefore very cold. The axis tilt (obliquity) of Ceres slowly changes over time and is currently 4 degrees, but ranged between 2 and 20 degrees over time. The color indicates the maximum obliquity…
Lunar landforms indicate geologically recent seismic activity on the moon
Global random spatial age distribution (0–250 million years) of 34 lunar lobate scarps in this study. Credit: Credit: Earth and Planetary Science Letters (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.epsl.2024.118636 The moon’s steadfast illumination of our night sky has been a source of wonder and inspiration for millennia. Since the first satellite images of its surface were taken in…
New findings point to an Earth-like environment on ancient Mars
NASA’s Curiosity rover continues to search for signs that Mars’ Gale Crater conditions could support microbial life. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS A research team using the ChemCam instrument onboard NASA’s Curiosity rover discovered higher-than-usual amounts of manganese in lakebed rocks within Gale Crater on Mars, which indicates that the sediments were formed in a river, delta, or…
Why is methane seeping on Mars? NASA scientists have new ideas
Filled with briny lakes, the Quisquiro salt flat in South America’s Altiplano region represents the kind of landscape that scientists think may have existed in Gale Crater on Mars, which NASA’s Curiosity Rover is exploring. Credit: Maksym Bocharov The most surprising revelation from NASA’s Curiosity Mars Rover—that methane is seeping from the surface of Gale…
New young and warm Jupiter-like exoplanet detected
NGTS monitoring plot showing average nightly fluxes for TOI-4862. Credit: Battley et al., 2024. An international team of astronomers reports the detection of a new young and warm exoplanet orbiting a distant star. The newfound alien world, designated TOI-4862 b (or NGTS-30 b), is similar in size and mass to Jupiter. The finding was published…