Uranus and Neptune May Have Taken Different Paths to Becoming Ice Giants
Uranus and Neptune are often described as near-twins, but a new study suggests their chemistry, and possibly their…
Volatile depletion in rocky planets as a chemical fingerprint of hybrid accretion
Albarède, F. Volatile accretion history of the terrestrial planets and dynamic implications. Nature 461, 1227–1233 (2009). Article ADS …
The Moon may have formed almost intact within hours of Theia smashing into Earth
New simulations of the Moon-forming giant impact show that treating the early Earth and Theia as realistic geological…
Meteorite dust holds records of magnetism that may have helped form the sun | MIT News
Magnetic fields are generated by matter that is electrically charged and moving around. In the very early solar…
Non-gravitational acceleration indicative of cometary activity of near-Earth object
Orbital fit The orbital solution was estimated through a least-squares fit52 to the available optical and radar astrometry.…
Isotopic imprints of late molecular cloud infall in the outer Solar System
Schiller, M., Bizzarro, M. & Fernandes, V. A. Isotopic evolution of the protoplanetary disk and the building blocks…
Asteroid Donaldjohanson is Wobbly, Peanut-Shaped Object with Watery Past, Scientists Say
The main-belt asteroid Donaldjohanson, a heavily cratered fragment born from a catastrophic breakup 155 million years ago, appears…
Meteorite Found in Africa Preserves Evidence of Long-Lost Massive Protoplanet
The Northwest Africa (NWA) 12774, an angrite meteorite discovered in the Sahara Desert, likely in Mauritania, appears to…
Asteroid Bennu’s Minerals and Organic Matter Occur in Distinct Chemical Domains: Study
A new nanoscale analysis of the Bennu sample OREX-800066-3 returned by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission shows that organic compounds…
Earth’s Building Blocks Came from Close to Home, Planetary Scientists Say
A new analysis of isotopic signatures across planets and meteorite parent bodies suggests our home world formed entirely…
DNA building blocks on asteroid Ryugu, bacteria that eat plastic waste, and more science news
Remember when Japan sent a spacecraft to an asteroid 180 million miles away to scoop some dirt off…
Sun May Have Escaped Milky Way’s Crowded Core Billions of Years Ago
Using a vast catalog of Sun-like stars built by ESA’s Gaia mission, astronomers have found strong evidence that…