Fragmenting planets sweeping extremely close to their stars might be the cause of mysterious cosmic blasts of radio waves. Milliseconds-long fast radio bursts, or FRBs, erupt from distant cosmic locales.…
Category: Space
A newly discovered planet renews debate about how some giant worlds form
A young, massive planet is orbiting in an unusual place in its star system, and it’s leading researchers to revive a long-debated view of how giant planets can form. The…
This is the biggest known comet in our solar system
The nucleus of a comet discovered in 2014 is the largest ever spotted. The “dirty snowball” at the center of comet C/2014 UN271 is about 120 kilometers across, researchers report…
New thermal maps of Neptune reveal surprising temperature swings
Neptune’s atmospheric temperature is on an unexpected roller-coaster ride, and it could take decades for scientists to piece together what’s happening at the distant planet. The ice giant’s global temperature…
Mars has two speeds of sound
On Mars, the speed of sound depends on its pitch. All sound travels slower through Mars’ air compared with Earth’s. But the higher-pitched clacks of a laser zapping rocks travels…
Diamonds may stud Mercury’s crust
A treasure trove of diamonds may be sown into Mercury’s cratered crust. Billions of years of meteorite impacts may have flash-baked much of Mercury’s surface into the glittery gemstones, planetary…
An ancient impact on Earth led to a cascade of cratering
A bevy of craters formed by material blasted from the carving of another, larger crater — a process dubbed secondary cratering — have finally been spotted on Earth. Several groupings…
These are the first visible-light images of Venus’ surface captured from space
By serendipity, scientists have photographed Venus’ surface from space for the first time. Though the planet’s rocky body is concealed beneath a thick veil of clouds, telescopes aboard NASA’s Parker…
Astronomers identified a second possible exomoon
Some of the same researchers who found the first purported exomoon now say that they’ve found another. Dubbed Kepler 1708 b i, the satellite has a radius about 2.6 times…
Spacecraft in 2021 set their sights on Mars, asteroids and beyond
While a flurry of missions crowded around Mars this year, some lesser-explored parts of the solar system are about to get fresh eyes. Three countries visited the Red Planet in…
