Space: The Solar System
Published

Saturn's tilt caused by its moons, researchers say      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Scientists have just shown that the influence of Saturn's satellites can explain the tilt of the rotation axis of the gas giant. Their work also predicts that the tilt will increase even further over the next few billion years.

Space: The Solar System
Published

Saturn's moon Titan: Largest sea is 1,000-feet deep      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Far below the gaseous atmospheric shroud on Saturn's largest moon, Titan, lies Kraken Mare, a sea of liquid methane. Astronomers have estimated that sea to be at least 1,000-feet deep near its center - enough room for a potential robotic submarine to explore.

Space: The Solar System
Published

Much of Earth's nitrogen was locally sourced      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Scientists show evidence that nitrogen acquired during Earth's formation came from both the inner and outer regions of the protoplanetary disk. The study has implications for signs of potential habitability of exoplanets.

Space: The Solar System
Published

Testing the waters: Analyzing different solid states of water on other planets and moons      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Scientists develop theoretical models to predict the presence of clathrate hydrates outside Earth, shedding light on the evolution of other atmospheres.

Space: The Solar System
Published

A 'super-puff' planet like no other      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Astronomers discover that the core mass of exoplanet WASP-107b is much lower than previously thought possible for a gas-giant planet.

Space: The Solar System
Published

Striped or spotted? Winds and jet streams found on the closest brown dwarf      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Using high-precision brightness measurements from NASA's TESS space telescope, astronomers found that the nearby brown dwarf Luhman 16B's atmosphere is dominated by high-speed, global winds akin to Earth's jet stream system. This global circulation determines how clouds are distributed in the brown dwarf's atmosphere, giving it a striped appearance.

Space: The Solar System
Published

Dark storm on Neptune reverses direction, possibly shedding a fragment      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope watched a mysterious dark vortex on Neptune abruptly steer away from a likely death on the giant blue planet.

Space: The Solar System
Published

Astronomers detect possible radio emission from exoplanet      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

By monitoring the cosmos with a radio telescope array, an international team of scientists has detected radio bursts emanating from the constellation Boötes. The signal could be the first radio emission collected from a planet beyond our solar system.

Space: The Solar System
Published

Device mimics life's first steps in outer space      (via sciencedaily.com) 

A new device promises insight into how the building blocks of life form in outer space. It mimics how molecules come together in the freezing darkness of interstellar space.

Space: The Solar System
Published

New superhighway system discovered in the Solar System      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Researchers have discovered a new superhighway network to travel through the Solar System much faster than was previously possible. Such routes can drive comets and asteroids near Jupiter to Neptune's distance in under a decade and to 100 astronomical units in less than a century. They could be used to send spacecraft to the far reaches of our planetary system relatively fast, and to monitor and understand near-Earth objects that might collide with our planet.

Space: The Solar System
Published

Image-based navigation could help spacecraft safely land on the moon      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Engineers have demonstrated how a series of lunar images can be used to infer the direction that a spacecraft is moving. This technique, sometimes called visual odometry, allows navigation information to be gathered even when a good map isn't available. The goal is to allow spacecraft to more accurately target and land at a specific location on the moon without requiring a complete map of its surface.

Space: The Solar System
Published

Supercomputer simulations could unlock mystery of Moon's formation      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Astronomers have taken a step towards understanding how the Moon might have formed out of a giant collision between the early Earth and another massive object 4.5 billion years ago.

Space: The Solar System
Published

Growing interest in Moon resources could cause tension      (via sciencedaily.com) 

An international team of scientists has identified a problem with the growing interest in extractable resources on the moon: there aren't enough of them to go around. With no international policies or agreements to decide 'who gets what from where,' scientists believe tensions, overcrowding, and quick exhaustion of resources to be one possible future for moon mining projects.

Space: The Solar System
Published

Mining rocks in orbit could aid deep space exploration      (via sciencedaily.com) 

The first mining experiments conducted in space could pave the way for new technologies to help humans explore and establish settlements on distant worlds, a study suggests.

Space: The Solar System
Published

New mineral discovered in moon meteorite      (via sciencedaily.com) 

The high-pressure mineral Donwilhelmsite, recently discovered in the lunar meteorite Oued Awlitis 001 from Apollo missions, is important for understanding the inner structure of Earth.

Space: The Solar System
Published

New remote sensing technique could bring key planetary mineral into focus      (via sciencedaily.com) 

The mineral olivine, thought to be a major component inside all planetary bodies, holds secrets about the early formation of the solar system, and a team of researchers has a new way to study it remotely.

Space: The Solar System
Published

Where were Jupiter and Saturn born?      (via sciencedaily.com) 

New work reveals the likely original locations of Saturn and Jupiter. These findings refine our understanding of the forces that determined our Solar System's unusual architecture, including the ejection of an additional planet between Saturn and Uranus, ensuring that only small, rocky planets, like Earth, formed inward of Jupiter.

Space: The Solar System
Published

Tiny moon shadows may harbor hidden stores of ice      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Hidden pockets of water could be much more common on the surface of the moon than scientists once suspected, according to new research.

Space: The Solar System
Published

NASA's SOFIA discovers water on sunlit surface of Moon      (via sciencedaily.com) 

NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) has confirmed, for the first time, water on the sunlit surface of the Moon. This discovery indicates that water may be distributed across the lunar surface, and not limited to cold, shadowed places.

Space: The Solar System
Published

Data reveals evidence of molecular absorption in the atmosphere of a hot Neptune      (via sciencedaily.com) 

An international team of scientists recently measured the spectrum of the atmosphere of a rare hot Neptune exoplanet, whose discovery by NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) was announced just last month.