#planetary sciences

[scienceandpopcorn]

source: scienceandpopcorn

Amazing and enigmatic Pluto.

High resolution image.

[mindblowingscience]

Astronomers make rare exoplanet discovery, and a giant leap in detecting Earth-like bodies

Astronomers have made the rare discovery of a small, cold exoplanet and its massive outer companion—shedding light on the formation of plane

Astronomers have made the rare discovery of a small, cold exoplanet and its massive outer companion—shedding light on the formation of planets like Earth. The findings include a planet with radius and mass between that of the Earth and Neptune, with a potential orbit around its host star of 146 days. The star system also contains an outer, large companion, 100 times the mass of Jupiter.

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[venusianwonders]

The History of Venus in Air, Rock, and Water

Some 30 years ago, NASA's Magellan “closed the book” on Venus. Now, a new generation thinks the planet next door deserves a second chance.

A historical look at Venus

[mindblowingscience]

Astronomers spot an Earth-sized planet with a 'lava hemisphere'

In a system with two known planets, astronomers spotted something new: A small object transiting across the sun-sized star. This turned out

In a system with two known planets, astronomers spotted something new: A small object transiting across the sun-sized star. This turned out to be another planet, which was extra hot and Earth-sized. The newly spotted planet, called HD 63433 d, is tidally locked, meaning there is a dayside that always faces its star and a side that is constantly in darkness. This exoplanet, or planet outside of our solar system, orbits around the star HD 63433 (TOI 1726) in the HD 63433 planetary system. This scorching world is the smallest confirmed exoplanet younger than 500 million years old. It's also the closest discovered Earth-sized planet this young, at about 400 million years old.

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[mindblowingscience]

NASA study finds life-sparking energy source and molecule at Enceladus

A study zooms in on data that NASA's Cassini gathered at Saturn's icy moon and finds evidence of a key ingredient for life and a supercharge

A study zooms in on data that NASA's Cassini gathered at Saturn's icy moon and finds evidence of a key ingredient for life and a supercharged source of energy to fuel it. Scientists have known that the giant plume of ice grains and water vapor spewing from Saturn's moon Enceladus is rich with organic compounds, some of which are important for life as we know it. Now, scientists analyzing data from NASA's Cassini mission are taking the evidence for habitability a step further: They've found strong confirmation of hydrogen cyanide, a molecule that is key to the origin of life.

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[wayti-blog]

"The Hidden Universe of Protoplanetary Disks: New Insights on Planet Formation"

"For decades, astronomers have peered into the depths of space, searching for answers to one of the most fundamental questions: how do planets form? Until recently, the prevailing view was that protoplanetary disks—the swirling clouds of gas and dust that birth planets—were often large, extending far beyond the orbit of Neptune. However, new research from Leiden Observatory, using the powerful Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), is rewriting that narrative. Their findings reveal that many protoplanetary disks are significantly smaller than previously believed, fundamentally changing our understanding of planetary formation.

(Images of 73 protoplanetary discs in the Lupus star forming region (two of the images contain binary stars). Only a fraction of the discs extend beyond the orbit of Neptune, when compared to our own Solar System. Most of the observed discs are small and show no structures like gaps and rings. Credit: Guerra-Alvarado et al.)

A team of scientists from Leiden Observatory in the Netherlands, led by Ph.D. candidate Osmar M. Guerra-Alvarado, postdoctoral researcher Mariana B. Sanchez, and assistant professor Nienke van der Marel, has conducted the most comprehensive high-resolution survey of protoplanetary disks in the Lupus star-forming region. Located about 400 light-years from Earth in the southern constellation Lupus, this region is a cradle of young stars and planetary systems in the making.

By imaging 73 protoplanetary disks with ALMA, the researchers discovered a striking fact: two-thirds of the disks were remarkably small, with an average radius of just six astronomical units (AU)—approximately the distance from the Sun to Jupiter. The smallest disk observed measured a mere 0.6 AU in radius, smaller than Earth’s orbit.

“These results completely change our view of what a ‘typical’ protoplanetary disk looks like,” Guerra-Alvarado states. “Only the brightest disks, which are the easiest to observe, show large-scale gaps where giant planets are thought to form. In contrast, compact disks without such substructures are actually far more common.”"

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[globalwarmingmag-blog]

UTS Science in Focus: Earth vs. Mars - Battle of the Planets

UTS Science in Focus: Earth vs. Mars – Battle of the Planets

Today I have been instructed to keep things very simple, but I’ve always believed that my audience is always intelligent and informed. Basically I am going to talk for no reason at all about my own research. I am going to talk a little bit more about what we can learn from astronomy, what we can learn from planetary sciences. What we can learn when we observe other planets that we can also use in…

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