https://phys.org/space-news/planetary-sciences en-us Planetary science and exoplanets exploration news stories and features from Phys.org Astronomers have discovered a rare in-sync solar system with six planets moving like a grand cosmic orchestra, untouched by outside forces since their birth billions of years ago. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-six-planet-solar-synchrony-milky.html Astronomy Planetary Sciences Sun, 03 Dec 2023 08:20:01 EST news620536497 Imagine you're a farmer searching for eggs in the chicken coop—but instead of a chicken egg, you find an ostrich egg, much larger than anything a chicken could lay. https://phys.org/news/2023-12-massive-planet-big-sun-astronomers.html Astronomy Planetary Sciences Sat, 02 Dec 2023 08:10:01 EST news620640245 Micrometeorites originating from icy celestial bodies in the outer solar system may be responsible for transporting nitrogen to the near-Earth region in the early days of our solar system. That discovery was published in Nature Astronomy by an international team of researchers, including University of Hawai'i at Mānoa scientists, led by Kyoto University. https://phys.org/news/2023-12-meteorites-source-nitrogen-early-earth.html Planetary Sciences Fri, 01 Dec 2023 07:29:03 EST news620638141 In early November of this year, aurora borealis were observed at surprisingly low latitudes, as far south as Italy and Texas. Such phenomena indicate the impacts of a solar coronal mass ejection on the Earth's magnetic field and atmosphere. Far more dramatic than this recent light show was, it was nothing compared to a huge solar storm in February 1872. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-largest-magnetic-storms-history-quantified.html Astronomy Planetary Sciences Thu, 30 Nov 2023 19:00:04 EST news620593201 In around six months, ESA's Earth Cloud Aerosol and Radiation Explorer mission will take to the skies to advance our understanding of the interactions between clouds, aerosols and radiation in Earth's atmosphere. But how will it do that exactly? https://phys.org/news/2023-11-earthcare-mission-clouds.html Planetary Sciences Thu, 30 Nov 2023 14:39:04 EST news620577541 The discovery of a planet that is far too massive for its sun is calling into question what was previously understood about the formation of planets and their solar systems, according to Penn State researchers. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-discovery-planet-big-sun-solar.html Planetary Sciences Thu, 30 Nov 2023 14:00:02 EST news620560814 City lights stretch across the United States like a string of holiday lights in this image taken from the International Space Station on Nov. 10, 2023. At far left, the lights of Chicago, Illinois, are outlined by Lake Michigan. At far right, the Dallas/Fort Worth metropolitan area shines through the clouds while the sun's first rays start to light up Earth's atmosphere (at top). https://phys.org/news/2023-11-image-sunrise.html Planetary Sciences Thu, 30 Nov 2023 12:53:03 EST news620571181 Ever want to play a game of cosmic billiards? That's commonly how the DART mission was described when it successfully changed the orbit of a near-Earth asteroid last year. If you want an idea of how it works, just Google it and an Easter egg from the search giant will give you a general idea. But DART was more like trying to brute force a billiards break—there are many other things you can do with a set of asteroids and impactors on the galactic stage. One of the more interesting is to try to force two asteroids together to form a "contact binary"—the goal of a mission design put forward by a group of scientists from Cornell in a recent paper in Acta Astronautica. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-contact-binary-asteroids-common-weve.html Space Exploration Planetary Sciences Thu, 30 Nov 2023 12:35:04 EST news620570102 The satellite discovered during the first asteroid encounter of NASA's Lucy mission has an official name. On Nov. 27, 2023, the International Astronomical Union approved the name "Selam" or ሰላም, which means "peace" in the Ethiopian language Amharic, for Dinkinesh's moon. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-satellite-nasa-lucy-mission.html Space Exploration Planetary Sciences Thu, 30 Nov 2023 12:28:04 EST news620569682 An international team of astronomers have used the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope to provide the first observation of water and other molecules in the inner, rocky-planet-forming regions of a disk in one of the most extreme environments in our galaxy. These results suggest that the conditions for rocky-planet formation, typically found in the disks of low-mass star-forming regions, can also occur in massive-star-forming regions and possibly a broader range of environments. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-webb-reveals-rocky-planets-extreme.html Astronomy Planetary Sciences Thu, 30 Nov 2023 11:59:24 EST news620567961 China's Zhurong rover was equipped with a ground-penetrating radar system, allowing it to peer beneath Mars's surface. Researchers have announced new results from the scans of Zhurong's landing site in Utopia Planitia, saying they identified irregular polygonal wedges located at a depth of about 35 meters all along the robot's journey. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-zhurong-rover-mysterious-polygons-beneath.html Planetary Sciences Thu, 30 Nov 2023 10:11:14 EST news620561471 University of California, Santa Cruz Professor of Planetary Sciences Francis Nimmo recently co-authored a Science Advances paper about the internal structure of the dwarf planet Eris. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-dwarf-planet-eris-squishier.html Planetary Sciences Thu, 30 Nov 2023 08:31:48 EST news620555506 Space exploration is always changing. Before February 2021 there had never been a human made craft flying around in the atmosphere of another world (other than rocket propelled landers arriving or departing). The Mars Perseverance rover changed that, carrying with it what can only be described as a drone named Ingenuity. It revolutionized planetary exploration and now, China are getting in on the act with a proposed quadcopter for a Mars sample return mission. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-tiny-quadcopter-china-sample-mission.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 29 Nov 2023 15:20:02 EST news620493601 Observations during a stellar occultation detected the presence of evolving material orbiting around Centaur (2060) Chiron, rather than a two-ring system interpretation, according to a paper by Planetary Science Institute Senior Scientist Amanda Sickafoose. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-evolving-material-circling-centaur-chiron.html Astronomy Planetary Sciences Wed, 29 Nov 2023 12:52:44 EST news620484761 Scientists have discovered a rare sight in a nearby star system: Six planets orbiting their central star in a rhythmic beat. The planets move in an orbital waltz that repeats itself so precisely that it can be readily set to music. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-scientists-rare-six-planet-strange-synchrony.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 29 Nov 2023 11:00:01 EST news620476136 While life on Earth is relatively new, geologically speaking, the ingredients that combined to form it might be much older than once thought. According to research published in ACS Central Science, the simplest amino acid, carbamic acid, could have formed alongside stars or planets within interstellar ices. The findings could be used to train deep space instruments like the James Webb Space Telescope to search for prebiotic molecules in distant, star-forming regions of the universe. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-blocks-life-stars-planets.html Astrobiology Planetary Sciences Wed, 29 Nov 2023 09:52:04 EST news620473922 Astronauts often react with awe when they see the curvature of Earth below the International Space Station. Now Mars scientists are getting a taste of what that's like, thanks to NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter, which completed its 22nd year at the Red Planet last month. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-nasa-orbiter-snaps-stunning-views.html Planetary Sciences Tue, 28 Nov 2023 16:29:48 EST news620411381 When spacecraft return to Earth, they don't need to shed all their velocity by firing retro-rockets. Instead, they use the atmosphere as a brake to slow down for a soft landing. Every planet in the solar system except Mercury has enough of an atmosphere to allow aerobraking maneuvers, and could allow high-speed exploration missions. A new paper looks at the different worlds and how a spacecraft must fly to take advantage of this "free lunch" to slow down at the destination. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-aerocapture-free-lunch-space-exploration.html Space Exploration Planetary Sciences Tue, 28 Nov 2023 13:22:05 EST news620400122 The Earth's magnetic field plays a big role in protecting people from hazardous radiation and geomagnetic activity that could affect satellite communication and the operation of power grids. And it moves. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-earth-magnetic-field-life-poles.html Planetary Sciences Tue, 28 Nov 2023 13:10:01 EST news620398648 Uranus, the seventh planet from the sun, orbits in the outer solar system, about two billion miles (3.2 billion kilometers) from Earth. It is an enormous world—quadruple the diameter of Earth, with 15 times the mass and 63 times the volume. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-unwrapping-uranus-icy-secrets-nasa.html Astronomy Planetary Sciences Tue, 28 Nov 2023 12:06:03 EST news620395561 Asteroid Phaethon, which is five kilometers in diameter, has been puzzling researchers for a long time. A comet-like tail is visible for a few days when the asteroid passes closest to the sun during its orbit. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-team-composition-asteroid-phaethon.html Planetary Sciences Tue, 28 Nov 2023 11:53:04 EST news620394781 Scientists have long puzzled over why all of the planets in Earth's solar system have slightly slanted orbits around the sun. But a new, Yale-led study suggests this phenomenon may not be so unusual after all. Even in "pristine" solar systems, planets exhibit a bit of a tilt. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-astronomers-tilted-planets-pristine-solar.html Astronomy Planetary Sciences Tue, 28 Nov 2023 10:43:10 EST news620390587 Observing distant objects is no easy task, thanks to our planet's thick and fluffy atmosphere. As light passes through the upper reaches of our atmosphere, it is refracted and distorted, making it much harder to discern objects at cosmological distances (billions of light years away) and small objects in adjacent star systems like exoplanets. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-next-generation-space-telescopes-deformable-mirrors.html Astronomy Planetary Sciences Mon, 27 Nov 2023 13:19:04 EST news620313541 Scientists have simulated conditions that allow hazy skies to form in water-rich exoplanets, a crucial step in determining how haziness muddles observations by ground and space telescopes. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-alien-haze-cooked-lab-view.html Astronomy Planetary Sciences Mon, 27 Nov 2023 13:00:03 EST news620312401 A recent study published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society examines formation mechanisms for how binary planets—two large planetary bodies orbiting each other—can be produced from a type of tidal heating known as tidal dissipation, or the energy that is shared between two planetary bodies as the orbit close to each other, which the Earth and our moon experiences. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-planets.html Planetary Sciences Mon, 27 Nov 2023 12:29:04 EST news620310542 Stars are gravitationally fastened to their galaxies and move in concert with their surroundings. But sometimes, something breaks the bond. If a star gets too close to a supermassive black hole, for example, the black hole can expel it out into space as a rogue star. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-earth-rogue-star.html Planetary Sciences Mon, 27 Nov 2023 12:26:04 EST news620310362 A new study shows that there is greater local variation in the impact of solar storms on Earth than previously estimated. Researchers show that the effects can vary widely even over distances as small as 100 kilometers. The findings are published in Scientific Reports. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-solar-storms-locally-current-instrument.html Planetary Sciences Mon, 27 Nov 2023 10:55:04 EST news620304901 In March 2022, a defunct part of a space rocket hurled toward the moon's surface and impacted near the Hertzsprung Crater, an enormous impact feature on the far side of the moon that is never directly visible from Earth. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-tracking-errant-space-rocket-mysterious.html Space Exploration Planetary Sciences Sat, 25 Nov 2023 09:40:01 EST news619511639 More information is always better when it comes to publicly funded space exploration projects. So it's welcome when a NASA engineer takes time out of the assuredly busy work lives to provide an update on everyone's favorite helicopter on Mars. Ingenuity has been having a rough few months, and a new article entitled "The Long Wait," posted by Travis Brown, Chief Engineer on the Ingenuity project, on NASA's website, provides a good amount of detail as to why. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-nasa-ingenuity-flights.html Space Exploration Planetary Sciences Fri, 24 Nov 2023 13:56:03 EST news620056561 Using NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), an international team of astronomers has discovered two new "hot Jupiter" exoplanets. The newfound alien worlds, designated TOI-4377 b and TOI-4551 b, both orbit distant red-giant stars. The finding was reported November 8 in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-astronomers-hot-jupiters-orbiting-red-giant.html Astronomy Planetary Sciences Thu, 23 Nov 2023 13:00:01 EST news619782575