Planetary Science

A Current Potentially Dangerous Asteroid Found

Three near-Earth asteroids -- one potentially hazardous -- were found using a high-tech instrument at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile.On Monday, an international group of astronomers reported the finding of a giant asteroid whose orbit crosses that of Earth, developing a slight possibility far in the future of a disastrous accident.The 1.5-kilometre-...

Ancient Martian Life Might Have Created the Conditions For Its Own Extinction

Planet Mars stock photo. Credit: iStock Ancient microbes on Mars likely triggered a climate change that led to their own demise, a report from Space.com explains.The study was published in Nature Astronomy, and it details how simple microbes that fed on hydrogen and excreted methane were likely abundant on Mars approximately 3.7 billion years back....

A Supercomputer Simulations Gives us a New Look at The Formation of the Moon

An image from the super computer simulation of the creation of the Moon. Credit: Durham UniversityResearchers from Durham University's Institute for Computational Cosmology used the most precise supercomputer simulations ever, revealing an alternative for how the Moon formed 4.5 billion years ago. It showed that a colossal impact between Earth and a Mars-sized body...

NASA’s Juno Gets the Highest-Resolution Close-Up of Jupiter’s Moon Europa

Surface features of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa are revealed in an image obtained by Juno’s Stellar Reference Unit (SRU) during the spacecraft’s Sept. 29, 2022, flyby. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRIThe highest-resolution photo NASA's Juno objective has ever taken of a specific portion of Jupiter's moon Europa shows a detailed view of a puzzling region of the...

After The Asteroid Collision, Europe’s Hera Will Probe ‘Crime Scene’

A NASA mission to deliberately smash a spacecraft into an asteroid blasts off on Monday.After NASA deliberately crushes a car-sized spacecraft into an asteroid the following week, it´ll be up to European Space Agency's Hera mission to investigate the "crime scene" and discover the secrets of these potentially devastating space rocks.NASA's Dual Asteroid Redirection...

Geologists Shed Recent Light On How Continents May Have Been Formed

Credit: CC0 Public DomainAn international research group has discovered that the 1st continents were not stable and also were recycled inside the Earth, in the mantle.The research, released today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), is significant because it provides essential clues on how planets formed."The rocks in the core...

China Intends to Protect the Earth From Asteroids by Utilizing the Moon

A full moon, known as the "Strawberry Moon" is shown split in half, June 15, 2022. Credit: REUTERS/JOE SKIPPERThe brand-new project entails putting three guardian satellites carrying loads of fuel and kinetic weapons into the moon's orbit around the Earth.China's "Planetary Defense System" has been capturing momentum recently, with Beijing researchers now planning to...

Astronomers Find a Multiplanet System Nearby

MIT astronomers have discovered a new multiplanet system that exists just 10 parsecs, or approximately 33 light-years, from Earth, making it one of the closest known multiplanet systems to our own. The star at the system's heart likely hosts at least two terrestrial, Earth-sized planets. Credit: MIT News, with TESS Satellite figure courtesy of...

Parker Solar Probe Captures Its First Images of Venus’ Surface in Visible Light

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight CenterNASA's Parker Solar Probe has taken its first visible-light pictures of the surface of Venus from spaceSurrounded in thick clouds, Venus' surface is usually hidden from view. However, in two current flybys of the Earth, Parker used its Wide-Field Imager, or WISPR, to image the whole nightside in wavelengths...

NASA Telescope Idea Could Spot Vegetation on Distant Exoplanets

Credit: Slava TuryshevNASA states it could detect "surface features" and even "hints of habitability" on distant planets.NASA is financing research for a conceptual telescope called a "solar gravitational lens" (SGL) that can allow us to observe remote exoplanets at a fantastic resolution-- a futuristic endeavor that might assist discovery at last if we...