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Categories: Space: The Solar System

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Physicists have described in fuller detail the sun's electric field. The researchers measured the flow of electrons streaming from the sun as the Parker Solar Probe spacecraft made its closest approach to date to our home star.

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Last autumn, researchers reported finding the gas phosphine in trace amounts in Venus' upper atmosphere, raising the slim possibility of a biological signature. Now scientists say that the phosphine's chemical fingerprints support a different find: evidence of explosive volcanoes.

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Researchers combined close-up observations of Jupiter's environment by NASA's satellite Juno, which is currently orbiting the planet, with simultaneous X-ray measurements from the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton observatory (which is in Earth's own orbit). The X-rays are part of Jupiter's aurora -- bursts of visible and invisible light that occur when charged particles interact with the planet's atmosphere. A similar phenomenon occurs on Earth, creating the northern lights, but Jupiter's is much more powerful, releasing hundreds of gigawatts of energy, enough to briefly power all of human civilization.

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Tidal stresses may be causing constant icequakes on Saturn's sixth largest moon Enceladus, a world of interest in the search for life beyond Earth, according to a new study.

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A new study disputes the prevailing hypothesis on why Mercury has a big core relative to its mantle. For decades, scientists argued that hit-and-run collisions blew away much of Mercury's rocky mantle and left the big, dense, metal core inside. But new research reveals that collisions are not to blame -- instead, the density, mass and iron content of a rocky planet's core is influenced by its distance from the sun's magnetic field.

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A new analysis of Venus' surface shows evidence of tectonic motion in the form of crustal blocks that have jostled against each other like broken chunks of pack ice.

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The long relationships between stars and the planets around them - including the Sun and the Earth - may be even more complex than previously thought. This is one conclusion of a new study involving thousands of stars using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory.

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A team of researchers working with data collected by an Incoherent Scatter Radar (ISR) have examined the simultaneous impacts of thunderstorms and solar flares on the ionospheric D-region (often referred to as the edge of space).

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For the first time, the boundary of the heliosphere has been mapped, giving scientists a better understanding of how solar and interstellar winds interact.

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Not only the 11-year cycle, but also all other periodic solar activity fluctuations can be clocked by planetary attractive forces. With new model calculations, they are proposing a comprehensive explanation of known sun cycles for the first time. They also reveal the longest fluctuations in activity over thousands of years as a chaotic process.

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Scientists have discovered a new, temperate sub-Neptune sized exoplanet with a 24-day orbital period orbiting a nearby M dwarf star. The recent discovery offers exciting research opportunities thanks to the planet's substantial atmosphere, small star, and how fast the system is moving away from the Earth.

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The spectacularly colorful aurora borealis -- or northern lights -- that fills the sky in high-latitude regions has fascinated people for thousands of years. Now, a team of scientists has resolved one of the final mysteries surrounding its origin.

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High performance computers are central to the quest to understand the sun's behavior and its role in space weather events. Scientists are using the Frontera supercomputer to improve the state-of-the-art in space weather forecasting. Researchers described the role of backstreaming pickup ions in the acceleration of charged particles in the universe, which play an important role in space weather.

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Laboratory experiments allow insights into the processes under the extreme pressure and temperature conditions of distant worlds.

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Although patterns in the timing of moderate space weather events are known, the most extreme and dangerous events were thought to be random in their timing. This study found for the first time that extreme space weather occurs most frequently at predictable times during solar cycles, meaning space missions could be timed to avoid them.

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Supermassive black holes devour stellar material just like their more petite counterparts, a new study finds.

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NASA's Voyager I spacecraft has long since zipped past the edge of the solar system through the heliopause - the solar system's border with interstellar space - into the interstellar medium. Now, its instruments have detected the constant drone of interstellar gas (plasma waves).

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The famed northern and southern lights have been studied for millennia, but they still hold secrets. Physicists describe a new phenomenon they call 'diffuse auroral erasers,' in which patches of the background glow are blotted out, then suddenly intensify and reappear.

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New simulations offer an intriguing look into Saturn's interior, suggesting that a thick layer of helium rain influences the planet's magnetic field.

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A new map of the Schrodinger basin of the moon could help guide future exploration missions.