Regions of the moon known as irregular mare patches—formed by magma cooling from a volcanic eruption—have almost no big craters, indicating that they must be relatively young. By studying the distribution of craters within them, we can estimate when these regions were formed: no more than 100 million years ago. Source: https://phys.org/news/2021-03-volcanic-moon-million-years.html…
Tag: Astronomy Planetary Sciences
Astronomers detect new super-Earth exoplanet orbiting nearby star
Using the radial velocity (RV) technique, astronomers have discovered a new super-Earth alien world as part of the HADES and CARMENES programs. The newfound exoplanet, designated GJ 740 b, orbits a bright star some 36 light-years away and is at least three times more massive than the Earth. The finding is reported in a paper published February 18 on the arXiv…
Martian moons have a common ancestor
Mars’s two moons, Phobos and Deimos, have puzzled researchers since their discovery in 1877. They are very small: Phobos’s diameter of 22 kilometers is 160 times smaller than that of our moon, and Deimos is even smaller, with a diameter of only 12 kilometers. “Our moon is essentially spherical, while the moons of Mars are very irregularly shaped—like potatoes,” says Amirhossein…
Signals in optical band can be used as probe to detect atmosphere escape of hot Jupiters
YAN Dongdong, GUO Jianheng and Xing Lei from Yunnan Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, collaborating with Huang Chenliang from University of Arizona, deduced that there is an expanding and escaping thermal neutral hydrogen atmosphere around hot Jupiter WASP-121b by simulating the optical transmission spectrum (Hα) of this exoplanet. The study was published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. Source: https://phys.org/news/2021-02-optical-band-probe-atmosphere-hot.html…
Evidence of Planet Nine diminishing as researchers find no evidence of clustering
An international team of researchers has found no evidence of trans-Neptunian object clustering as part of an effort to refute the idea of the existence of Planet Nine. The group has written a paper describing their findings and have uploaded it to the arXiv preprint server. Source: https://phys.org/news/2021-02-evidence-planet-diminishing-clustering.html…
Planetary scientists discover evidence for a reduced atmosphere on ancient Mars
Both Earth and Mars currently have oxidising atmospheres, which is why iron-rich materials in daily life develop rust (a common name for iron oxide) during the oxidation reaction of iron and oxygen. The Earth has had an oxidising atmosphere for approximately 2.5 billion years, but before that, the atmosphere of this planet was reducing—there was no rust. Source: https://phys.org/news/2021-02-planetary-scientists-evidence-atmosphere-ancient.html…
A new way of forming planets
In the last 25 years, scientists have discovered over 4000 planets beyond the borders of our solar system. From relatively small rock and water worlds to blisteringly hot gas giants, the planets display a remarkable variety. This variety is not unexpected. The sophisticated computer models, with which scientists study the formation of planets, also spawn very different planets. What the models…
Ceramic chips inside meteorites hint at wild days of the early solar system
Anew analysis of ceramic chips embedded in meteorites suggests the formation of our solar system was not as quiet and orderly as we once thought. Source: https://phys.org/news/2021-02-ceramic-chips-meteorites-hint-wild.html…
Where should future astronauts land on Mars? Follow the water
So you want to build a Mars base. Where to start? Like any human settlement, it would be best located near accessible water. Not only will water be crucial for life-support supplies, it will be used for everything from agriculture to producing the rocket propellant astronauts will need to return to Earth. Source: https://phys.org/news/2021-02-future-astronauts-mars.html…
SPIRou carries out first ever measurement of a very young exoplanet’s density
A research team led by scientists from IRAP (CNRS/CNES/Université Toulouse III—Paul Sabatier) and IPAG (CNRS/UGA) has for the first time measured the internal density of a very young exoplanet orbiting a newly formed, extremely active star. Despite the ‘noise’ generated by the star’s activity, they successfully achieved this using the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT)’s planet hunting instrument SPIRou. The findings are published…