Tagged: planet

When oxygen appeared on Earth, scientists have found out

American biologists managed to establish when oxygen appeared in the Earth’s atmosphere. As RIA Novosti reports with reference to a study by specialists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, cyanobacteria responsible for the production of oxygen appeared on the planet about three billion years ago,...

Marsquakes reveal Red Planet has surprisingly large core, thin crust

Quakes on Mars have unveiled its interior to an unprecedented degree, revealing surprising details about the Red Planet’s crust, mantle and core. Measurements taken by NASA’s InSight (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) lander have uncovered details, including a crustal layer that...

Planet Earth: Facts about our home planet

Earth, our home, is the third planet from the sun. While scientists continue to hunt for clues of life beyond Earth, our home planet remains the only place in the universe where we’ve ever identified living organisms. Earth is the fifth-largest planet in the solar...

Earth’s Lopsided Core? Strangeness In Our Planet’s Interior

Earth’s lopsided core growth Far beneath our feet, Earth’s inner core is solid iron, very hot and very dense. It’s surrounded by a molten iron-nickel outer core (whose flow generates Earth’s magnetic field) and a rocky mantle that’s mostly solid but which, over eons of...

What makes a planet look bright? It’s complicated.

The planets are a dynamic bunch, and throughout the year as seen from Earth, these celestial bodies appear not only to move across the sky but also to brighten and fade in turn. A planet’s distance from Earth is probably the most significant factor governing...

A New Planet Next Door?

Astronomers have imaged something near the star Alpha Centauri A, in the star system next door to our sun, just 4.4 light-years away. Is it an asteroid, or dust, or an image glitch, or … a planet? If it is a planet, it’s the first...

How Shrinking Planets Might Explain Missing Planets

Can planets shrink? New research from the Flatiron Institute in New York City suggests they can. Shrinking planets might be the solution to the mystery gap in the sizes of exoplanets discovered so far. Planets between 1.5 and two times Earth’s radius are mostly missing....

Planet formation may start earlier than previously thought

On their long journey to form planets, dust grains may coalesce with each other much earlier than previously thought, simulations by RIKEN astrophysicists suggest1. This may mean revisiting conventional theories of planet formation. Massive planets start off life as specks of dust that are too...

Deep water on Neptune and Uranus may be magnesium-rich

While scientists have amassed considerable knowledge of the rocky planets in our solar system, like Earth and Mars, much less is known about the icy water-rich planets, Neptune and Uranus. In a new study recently published in Nature Astronomy, a team of scientists recreated the...