Credit: Steve Jurvetson / Wikimedia, CC BY-SA In May 2020, some unusual rocks containing distinctive greenish crystals were found in the Erg Chech sand sea, a dune-filled region of the Sahara Desert in southern Algeria. On close inspection, the rocks turned out to be from outer space: lumps of rubble billions of years old, left…
Category: Planets
Simulations suggest only 22 people are required to start a colony on Mars
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain A team of computational social scientists at George Mason University has found via simulations that 22 people is the minimum number needed to start a human colony on Mars. The group has posted a paper describing their simulation on the arXiv preprint server. As humans around the globe ponder the possibility…
Penetrating radar aboard the Chang'E-4 rover reveals layers of the moon's history
Image taken by the panoramic camera (PCAM) on board the Chinese Yutu 2 lunar rover as it looked back at the Chang’e 4 lander. Credit: Nature Communications (2019). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-12278-3/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA A team of space scientists at the Planetary Science Institute, working with colleagues from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen University and the…
A new approach to reduce the risk of losing solar-powered rovers on the moon
Conceptual overview of our approach. Most long-range traverse planning algorithms for solar-powered do not proactively account for possible navigation delays. Here, the dashed white path shows a plan that leads a rover inside a PSR to sunlight as quickly as possible, but it is not resilient against possible delays that will cause the rover to…
Ryugu asteroid origins in the solar nebula decoded by carbonates
This article has been reviewed according to Science X’s editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content’s credibility: fact-checked peer-reviewed publication trusted source proofread by Hannah Bird , Phys.org Location of asteroid belt and a photograph of Ryugu taken in 2018 (scale bar equals 200m). Credit: Oba et al. 2023/JAXA….
After 17 years, NASA's STEREO-A spacecraft makes its first Earth flyby
Images from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory show the Sun at solar minimum in October 2019 (left) and the last solar maximum in April 2014 (right). Dark coronal holes cover the Sun during solar minimum, while bright active regions—indicating more solar activity—cover the Sun during solar maximum. Credit: NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory/Joy Ng On August 12,…
A novel method uses gravity data to determine where density anomalies lie inside planetary bodies
Researchers are developing a new technique to help visualize the complex internal layering and anomalous structures inside planetary bodies, including the Moon. Credit: NGC 54/Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 4.0 Getting to know planets or moons inside out isn’t easy. Like Earth and its moon, many celestial bodies are multilayered and can contain anomalous internal features that…
Hundred-year storms? That's how long they last on Saturn
In the optical, Saturn’s banded atmosphere appears to smoothly shift from color to color. But seen here in radio light — VLA data overlays a Cassini image of Saturn — the distinct nature of the bands is apparent. Scientists used VLA data to better understand ammonia in the gas giant’s atmosphere and learned that megastorms…
Saturn-sized exoplanet discovered with TESS
TESS target pixel file image of TOI-4860 in Sector 10. Credit: Almenara et al., 2023. Using NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), an international team of astronomers has discovered a new giant exoplanet transiting a nearby M-dwarf star. The newfound alien world, designated TOI-4860 b, is comparable in size and mass to Saturn. The finding…
NASA's Ingenuity Mars helicopter flies again after unscheduled landing
This view of NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter was generated using data collected by the Mastcam-Z instrument aboard the agency’s Perseverance Mars rover on Aug. 2, 2023, the 871st Martian day, or sol, of the mission, one day before the rotorcraft’s 54th flight. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter successfully completed its 54th flight on Aug….