Astronomers identify new method of planet formation

Scientists have suggested a new explanation for the abundance in intermediate-mass exoplanets – a long-standing puzzle in astronomy.

Cambridge University News • cambridge
Feb. 12, 2021 ~4 min

What you need to know about this year's winter solstice and the great conjunction

This year's winter solstice is also when Saturn and Jupiter appear closest to each other for 60 years, Here's what you need to know about both the events.

William Teets, Acting Director and Astronomer, Dyer Observatory, Vanderbilt University • conversation
Dec. 18, 2020 ~5 min


Asteroid Bennu: successful touchdown – but sample return mission has only just begun

Bennu will tell us about our own origins as much as about the origin of asteroid Bennu.

Monica Grady, Professor of Planetary and Space Sciences, The Open University • conversation
Oct. 21, 2020 ~7 min

NASA's OSIRIS-REx will land on an asteroid to bring home rocks and dust – if it can avoid Mt. Doom

OSIRIS-REx will touch down on asteroid Bennu, collect a sample of the dust and begin its journey back to Earth, where scientists will study it, hoping to learn secrets of the solar system's origin.

Elizabeth Cantwell, Professor of Practice for Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering and Senior Vice President for Research & Innovation, University of Arizona • conversation
Oct. 19, 2020 ~8 min

The four most promising worlds for alien life in the solar system

The clouds of Venus may harbour alien life. But where else?

Gareth Dorrian, Post Doctoral Research Fellow in Space Science, University of Birmingham • conversation
Sept. 18, 2020 ~7 min

Hints of life discovered on Venus

A UK-led team of astronomers has discovered a rare molecule – phosphine – in the clouds of Venus, pointing to the possibility of extra-terrestrial ‘aerial’

Cambridge University News • cambridge
Sept. 14, 2020 ~7 min

MIT-led team to develop software to help forecast space storms

National Science Foundation awards proposal for space weather modeling.

Sara Cody | Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics • mit
Sept. 10, 2020 ~7 min

Life inside Pluto? Hot birth may have created internal ocean on dwarf planet

Pluto began hot inside, study of its surface fractures suggests

David Rothery, Professor of Planetary Geosciences, The Open University • conversation
June 22, 2020 ~8 min


When baby planets melt

MIT scientists identify first magmas generated in solar system’s building blocks, unexpectedly answering questions about meteorites and formation of rocky planets.

Laura Carter | School of Science • mit
May 7, 2020 ~8 min

Is this what our solar system’s ‘force field’ looks like?

There's a protective bubble around our solar system called the heliosphere. New research may bridge the divide between two major theories.

Kate Becker-Boston University • futurity
March 20, 2020 ~9 min

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