A Solar System in the making? Two planets spotted forming in disc around young star

This image shows two planets being born around the young star WISPIT 2. These observations were made with the SPHERE instrument at ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT). SPHERE can directly image exoplanets by correcting atmospheric turbulence and blocking the light from the central star.   This composite image contains SPHERE observations carried out at different epochs. The outermost planet, WISPIT 2b, was discovered first, whereas WISPIT 2c, which orbits much closer to the star, was confirmed afterwards. 
Image Credit: ESO/C. Lawlor, R. F. van Capelleveen et al.

Scientific Frontline: "At a Glance" Summary: WISPIT 2 Planetary System

• Main Discovery: Astronomers confirmed the presence of a second developing gas giant, WISPIT 2c, within the planet-forming disk of the young star WISPIT 2, establishing it as only the second known system where multiple forming planets have been directly observed.
• Methodology: Researchers captured direct images of the object using the SPHERE instrument on the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope and confirmed its planetary status utilizing the recently upgraded GRAVITY+ instrument on the VLT Interferometer.
• Key Data: WISPIT 2c is roughly ten times the mass of Jupiter and orbits four times closer to the central star than the previously discovered WISPIT 2b, which possesses five times Jupiter's mass and an orbit sixty times the distance between the Earth and the Sun.
• Significance: The system features an extended disk with distinct dust rings and gaps carved by accumulating planetary embryos, providing a critical observational laboratory for studying how young planetary systems evolve into mature configurations akin to our own Solar System.
• Future Application: Astronomers plan to utilize the upcoming Extremely Large Telescope to conduct follow-up observations and attempt direct imaging of a suspected third, Saturn-mass planet that may be carving a narrower, shallower outer gap in the disk.
• Branch of Science: Astronomy, Astrophysics, Planetary Science

Large craters offer clues to the origin of asteroid 16 Psyche

Scientific Frontline: "At a Glance" Summary: Asteroid 16 Psyche

• Main Discovery: The internal porosity of asteroid 16 Psyche significantly governs the formation, depth, and shape of its large impact craters, determining how impact energy is absorbed and how ejected material is distributed across its surface.
• Methodology: Researchers applied Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics code and 3D models derived from telescope observations to simulate the formation of a specific concavity near Psyche's north pole. They tested both a layered metallic core structure and a uniform rock-and-metal mixture by striking the virtual target with impactors at a 45-degree angle and at speeds of three miles per second.
• Key Data: Psyche measures 140 miles in diameter and is the largest metallic asteroid in the main belt, where fewer than 10% of asteroids are metal-rich. Simulations confirmed that a three-mile-wide impactor could create the observed 30-mile-wide by three-mile-deep crater under both of the tested interior structure scenarios.
• Significance: Establishing how porosity and internal composition influence crater morphology provides a crucial baseline for determining whether Psyche is an exposed planetary core or a catastrophic amalgamation of rock and metal, offering unique insight into early solar system planetary formation.
• Future Application: Geochemists, geologists, and modelers will use these predictive simulations to interpret surface, gravitational, magnetic, and compositional data collected by NASA's Psyche spacecraft when it arrives at the asteroid in 2029.
• Branch of Science: Planetary Science, Astrophysics
• Additional Detail: The study provides a new modeling capability for simulating impacts on atypical, non-solid asteroids that contain massive amounts of empty space or fractured material left over from ancient celestial collisions.

From dust to planets: a turbulent story

Scientific Frontline: "At a Glance" Summary: Shear-Flow Instability in Planet Formation

• Main Discovery: Researchers have provided the first experimental evidence that shear-flow instability occurs under conditions similar to planet-forming regions, bridging a critical gap in understanding how fine dust aggregates into planetesimals.
• Methodology: The team developed the TEMPus VoLA experiment, utilizing high-speed cameras to track the behavior of dust particles in an extremely thin gas under vacuum conditions during parabolic flights that provided simulated microgravity.
• Key Data: Each parabolic flight dive phase provided weightlessness for approximately 20 seconds, successfully allowing the observation of characteristic material flow patterns before turbulence fully developed.
• Significance: This confirmation proves that shear-flow instability is a tangible physical process capable of fostering denser dust clouds in protoplanetary disks, addressing the theoretical barrier that prevents centimeter- to hundred-meter-sized boulders from growing.
• Future Application: The experimental apparatus is being advanced for deployment on the International Space Station (ISS), where extended periods of microgravity will allow for the observation of fully developed turbulence to refine theoretical models and computer simulations.
• Branch of Science: Astrophysics, Planetary Science, Fluid Dynamics.
• Additional Detail: The research was published in Communications Physics and represents a collaborative effort among the University of Bern, the University of Zurich, ETH Zurich, and the National Center of Competence in Research (NCCR) PlanetS.

Ancient Zircon Crystals Provide a Window into Early Earth History

A zircon crystal exhibiting distinct edges, or rims, from a metamorphic event after its initial formation.
Photo Credit: Shane K. Houchin

Scientific Frontline: "At a Glance" Summary: Ancient Zircons and Early Earth History

• Main Discovery: Analysis of ancient zircon grains indicates that early Earth experienced rapid oxidation shortly after its formation and confirms that plate tectonics were active much earlier than previously recognized.
• Methodology: Researchers utilized U XANES oxybarometry at synchrotron facilities to precisely measure trace elements, specifically the oxidation states of uranium, encapsulated within the cores and distinct rims of ancient zircon crystals.
• Key Data: Zircon rims dating to 4.1 billion years ago demonstrated unexpectedly high oxidation levels, indicating crustal oxidation merely 350 million years after Earth's formation, while distinct high-pressure and low-temperature signatures point to subduction zone activity at least 3.35 billion years ago.
• Significance: The results challenge the long-held paradigm that the Hadean eon was a completely dry and highly reduced environment, instead suggesting the early presence of abundant water and the early onset of dynamic geological processes necessary for the evolution of life.
• Future Application: The novel U XANES oxybarometry technique will be applied to analyze hundreds of additional zircon grains spanning various geological periods to construct a more comprehensive record of planetary evolution and shifting environmental conditions.
• Branch of Science: Geochemistry, Geosciences, and Planetary Science.
• Additional Detail: The analyzed zircon crystals, sourced primarily from the Jack Hills region of Western Australia, measure only a quarter of a millimeter in length but feature growth layers analogous to tree rings that preserve exact historical magma chemistry conditions.

What Is: The Biosphere

A conceptual visualization of Earth's life-supporting envelope, illustrating the dynamic flow of energy and the intricate integration of living organisms with the planet's abiotic systems.
Image Credit: Scientific Frontline

Scientific Frontline: Extended "At a Glance" Summary: The Biosphere

The Core Concept: The biosphere is the comprehensive global ecological system integrating all living organisms and their complex relationships, including their continuous physical interactions with the planet's non-living elements. It serves as the biological connective tissue uniting Earth's major physical systems.

Key Distinction/Mechanism: Unlike the Earth's abiotic spheres (lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and cryosphere), the biosphere is uniquely biotic. Mechanistically, it operates as a thermodynamically open system regarding energy (reliant on continuous solar input) but a largely closed system regarding matter, functioning through the relentless recycling of biogeochemical nutrients.

Major Frameworks/Components: 

• The Noosphere: Vernadsky’s framework identifying the current evolutionary epoch in which human cognition, scientific thought, and anthropogenic activity act as dominant drivers of Earth's environmental change.
• Interacting Physical Systems: The continuous integration between the biosphere and the abiotic environment, driving processes such as nutrient extraction from the pedosphere and gas exchange with the atmosphere.
• Ecosystems and Biomes: The structural hierarchies organizing biotic communities and abiotic factors based on geographic scale, climatic drivers, and energy distribution.
• Thermodynamics and Energy Flow: The unidirectional transfer of solar energy through trophic levels, strictly limited by metabolic heat loss and defined by ecological constraints such as Lindeman's 10% Rule.
• Biogeochemical Cycles: The perpetual conservation and migration of essential matter (e.g., carbon, water, nitrogen) across biological and geological states.
• The Deep Subterranean Biosphere: Vast, high-pressure microbial ecosystems existing kilometers beneath the Earth's crust, functioning via chemolithoautotrophy entirely independent of solar energy.

CHEOPS detects a new planetary "disorder"

Artist impression of the planetary system around the star LHS 1903
Image Credit: © ESA

Scientific Frontline: "At a Glance" Summary

• Main Discovery: Identification of LHS 1903 e, a rocky planet located beyond gas giants in the LHS 1903 system, contradicting the standard inner-rocky/outer-gas planetary hierarchy.
• Methodology: Utilized high-precision photometry from the ESA CHEOPS satellite to detect the planet, followed by planetary formation simulations to confirm an "inside-out" formation sequence and exclude migration or collision hypotheses.
• Key Data: Located 116 light-years from Earth around an M-type red dwarf; the fourth planet shares a similar mass with the inner third planet (a gas giant) yet possesses a rocky composition.
• Significance: Provides observational evidence for the inside-out planet formation theory, indicating that planets can form sequentially after the dissipation of protoplanetary disk gas rather than simultaneously.
• Future Application: Refinement of planetary accretion simulations to incorporate asynchronous formation timelines and better characterization of atypical planetary system architectures.
• Branch of Science: Astrophysics and Exoplanetology
• Additional Detail: Analysis indicates LHS 1903 e formed significantly later than its gas giant siblings, occurring only after the protoplanetary disk had been depleted of gas.

Hydrogen sulfide detected in distant gas giant exoplanets for the first time

This animation shows the four giant planets orbiting HR 8799, located 133 light-years from Earth. The movie combines real images captured at the W.M. Keck Observatory between 2009 and 2021, with the planets’ orbital motion smoothed by modeling their orbital paths around the star.
Image Credit: W. Thompson (NRC-HAA), C. Marois (NRC-HAA), Q. Konopacky (UCSD) 

Scientific Frontline: "At a Glance" Summary

• Main Discovery: Astronomers detected hydrogen sulfide molecules for the first time in the atmospheres of four massive gas giant exoplanets orbiting the star HR 8799.
• Methodology: Researchers utilized spectral data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), applying new data analysis algorithms to suppress starlight and creating specialized atmospheric models to identify the unique light absorption signatures of sulfur.
• Key Data: The target system is located 133 light-years away in the constellation Pegasus, with the observed planets ranging from 5 to 10 times the mass of Jupiter and orbiting at distances greater than 15 astronomical units from their host star.
• Significance: The presence of sulfur indicates these bodies formed by accreting solid particles from a protoplanetary disk rather than collapsing directly from gas, definitively classifying them as planets rather than brown dwarfs.
• Future Application: The signal processing techniques developed for this study establish a viable method for characterizing the atmospheres of smaller, rocky worlds and searching for biosignatures on Earth-like exoplanets in the future.
• Branch of Science: Astronomy, Astrophysics and Planetary Science.
• Additional Detail: The study reveals that these distant giants share a heavy element enrichment pattern similar to Jupiter and Saturn, suggesting a universal formation mechanism for gas giants across different stellar systems.

NASA’s Juno spacecraft measures thickness of Europa’s ice shell

NASA’s Juno mission, led by an SwRI scientist, recently provided the first resolved subsurface measurements of the ice-encased Jovian moon Europa. This cutaway illustration shows an 18-mile-thick shell with a shallow layer containing small imperfections — cracks, pores and voids. The icy moon is thought to harbor a vast ocean beneath its icy exterior that could contain the ingredients for life.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/K. Kuramura

Scientific Frontline: "At a Glance" Summary

• Main Discovery: Data from NASA’s Juno spacecraft reveals that the rigid, conductive outer ice shell of Jupiter’s moon Europa is approximately 29 kilometers thick.
• Methodology: Researchers utilized the Microwave Radiometer (MWR) instrument aboard Juno to measure thermal emissions and probe the ice shell at varying depths during a close flyby in September 2022.
• Key Data: The estimated thickness of the conductive ice layer is 29 ± 10 kilometers, though this figure could be reduced by approximately 5 kilometers if the ice contains significant salt levels.
• Significance: A shell of this thickness creates a substantial barrier to the transport of oxidants and nutrients from the surface to the subsurface ocean, potentially limiting the moon's habitability.
• Future Application: These findings characterize the ice shell properties to refine observation strategies for the upcoming Europa Clipper mission, particularly for calibrating its ice-penetrating radar.
• Branch of Science: Planetary Science and Astrobiology.
• Additional Detail: The MWR instrument detected shallow structural irregularities such as cracks and voids within the top hundreds of meters, but these features likely do not extend deep enough to serve as conduits for material exchange.Scientific Frontline: "At a Glance" Summary

Streaks on Mercury show: Mercury is not a "dead planet"

Image of the streaks or ‘lineae’ on the slopes of a crater wall on Mercury and the bright hollows from which the streaks originate. The image was taken by MESSENGER on April 10, 2014.
Image Credit: © NASA/JHUAPL/Carnegie Institution of Washington

Scientific Frontline: "At a Glance" Summary

• Main Discovery: A systematic analysis has identified approximately 400 bright slope streaks, or "lineae," on Mercury, indicating the planet is currently geologically active through the outgassing of subsurface volatiles.
• Methodology: Researchers employed a deep learning algorithm to automatically screen and analyze over 100,000 high-resolution images captured by NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft during its 2011–2015 orbital mission.
• Key Data: The study produced the first comprehensive census of roughly 400 streaks—compared to only a handful previously known—revealing a distinct accumulation on the sun-facing slopes of young impact craters.
• Significance: These findings overturn the prevailing assumption that Mercury is a "dead" and static world, suggesting a continuous, solar-driven release of elements like sulfur into space.
• Future Application: This inventory will serve as a baseline for the ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission to re-image these regions, allowing scientists to detect new streak formation and quantify the planet's volatile budget.
• Branch of Science: Planetary Geology and Remote Sensing.
• Additional Detail: The formation of these streaks is attributed to solar radiation mobilizing volatiles through crack networks created by impact events, often originating from bright, shallow depressions known as hollows.

International astronomical survey captures remarkable images of the “teenage years” of new worlds

This ARKS gallery of faint debris disks reveals details about their shape: belts with multiple rings, wide smooth halos, sharp edges, and unexpected arcs and clumps, which hint at the presence of planets shaping these disks; and chemical make-up: the amber colors highlight the location and abundance of the dust in the 24 disks surveyed, while the blue their carbon monoxide gas location and abundance in the six gas-rich disks.
Image Credit: Sebastian Marino, Sorcha Mac Manamon, and the ARKS collaboration

Scientific Frontline: Extended "At a Glance" Summary

The Core Concept: The ARKS (ALMA survey to Resolve exoKuiper belt Substructures) program is an international astronomical survey that has captured the first high-resolution images of debris disks, which represent the chaotic "teenage" phase of planetary system evolution.

Key Distinction/Mechanism: Unlike the bright, gas-rich disks of newborn planets ("baby pictures"), these "teenage" systems are fainter dusty belts that exist after planets have formed but before the system settles into adulthood; the survey utilizes the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to resolve minute details like dust grains and carbon monoxide gas, revealing complex substructures rather than simple, uniform rings.

Origin/History: The survey team, led by the University of Exeter, secured approximately 300 hours of observation time at the ALMA observatory between October 2022 and July 2024, with findings published in a series of papers in Astronomy & Astrophysics.

Polar weather on Jupiter and Saturn hints at the planets’ interior details

This infrared 3D image of Jupiter's north pole shows a ring of 8 vortices surrounding a central cyclone. MIT researchers have now identified a mechanism that determines whether a gas giant evolves one versus multiple polar vortices.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/ASI/INAF/JIRAM
(CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

Scientific Frontline: "At a Glance" Summary

• Main Discovery: MIT researchers determined that the divergence in polar vortex patterns between Jupiter and Saturn—multiple smaller vortices versus a single massive one—is governed by the "softness" of the vortex's base, a property directly linked to the planet's interior composition.
• Methodology: The team utilized a two-dimensional model of surface fluid dynamics, adapting equations used for Earth's midlatitude cyclones to gas giant polar regions; they simulated vortex evolution from random fluid noise under varying parameters of size, rotation, heating, and fluid softness.
• Key Data: Simulations indicate that "softer" bases limit vortex growth, resulting in Jupiter's cluster of 3,000-mile-wide vortices, whereas "harder" bases allow expansion into a single, planetary-scale system like Saturn's 18,000-mile-wide hexagonal vortex.
• Significance: This study establishes a novel theoretical link between observable surface atmospheric patterns and hidden interior properties, suggesting Saturn possesses a denser, more metal-enriched interior compared to Jupiter's lighter, less stratified composition.
• Future Application: These findings provide a non-invasive framework for astrophysicists to infer the internal stratification and composition of gas giants solely by analyzing their surface fluid dynamics.
• Branch of Science: Planetary Science and Atmospheric Physics.
• Additional Detail: The researchers successfully reduced a complex 3D dynamical problem to a 2D model because the rapid rotation of gas giants enforces uniform fluid motion along the rotating axis.

Hidden magma oceans could shield rocky exoplanets from harmful radiation

UNDER ARMOR?
Deep layers of molten rock inside some super-earths could generate powerful magnetic fields—potentially stronger than Earth’s—and help shield these exoplanets from harmful radiation.
Illustration Credit: University of Rochester Laboratory for Laser Energetics  / Michael Franchot

Scientific Frontline: "At a Glance" Summary

• Main Discovery: Deep layers of molten rock known as basal magma oceans (BMOs) within super-earths become electrically conductive under extreme pressure, creating a dynamo capable of generating magnetic fields.
• Methodology: Researchers utilized laser shock compression experiments to replicate high-pressure planetary interiors, integrated with quantum mechanical calculations and planetary thermal evolution models.
• Key Data: Super-earths exceeding three to six times Earth's size can sustain these silicate-based dynamos for billions of years, potentially producing magnetic fields stronger than Earth's.
• Significance: This finding challenges the assumption that planetary magnetic fields require liquid metal cores, thereby expanding the definition of habitable zones to include massive rocky worlds previously thought to be unshielded from cosmic radiation.
• Future Application: Astronomers can apply these models to interpret future observations of exoplanet magnetic fields and atmospheric retention, refining the selection of targets for biosignature searches.
• Branch of Science: Planetary Science and High-Energy Density Physics

Tiny Mars’ big impact on Earth’s climate

Differences in the way Earth and Mars orbit the sun.
Image Credit: NASA

Scientific Frontline: "At a Glance" Summary

• Main Discovery: New simulations reveal that Mars exerts a definitive gravitational influence on Earth’s long-term climate patterns and ice ages, significantly shaping the orbital cycles that drive glacial periods.
• Methodology: Researchers utilized advanced computer models to simulate solar system dynamics over millions of years, isolating Mars' specific impact by observing Earth's orbital variations (Milankovitch cycles) with the Red Planet both present and theoretically removed.
• Specific Data: While the 430,000-year cycle driven by Venus and Jupiter remained stable in Mars-free simulations, the 100,000-year and 2.3 million-year climate cycles disappeared entirely without Mars' gravitational pull.
• Mechanism & Dynamics: The study demonstrated that increasing the mass of Mars in simulations stabilized Earth's axial tilt (obliquity) by reducing its rate of change, while simultaneously shortening the duration of specific orbital cycles.
• Implication for Exoplanets: These findings suggest that small, outer-orbit planets may be critical for maintaining the climatic stability of Earth-sized worlds in the habitable zones of other solar systems.

Mars was half covered by an ocean

The delta deposits that appeared on the images of Mars with the coastline.
Image Credit: © ESA/ExoMars – TGO/CaSSIS/Ignatius Argadestya

Scientific Frontline: "At a Glance" Summary

• Main Discovery: Analysis of geomorphologic structures in the Valles Marineris region confirms Mars hosted a vast ocean approximately three billion years ago.
• Specific Detail: Researchers identified "scarp-fronted deposits" in the southeast Coprates Chasma that function as fan deltas, marking the precise locations where ancient rivers deposited sediment into a standing body of water.
• Key Statistic: Reconstructed sea levels indicate this ancient ocean was at least as large as Earth's Arctic Ocean and extended across the planet's northern hemisphere.
• Methodology: The study utilized high-resolution imagery from the CaSSIS camera on the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter to map terrain features and apply terrestrial sedimentological models to Martian geology.
• Significance: The confirmation of extensive river deltas and a stable coastline provides strong evidence for a humid, "blue planet" environment that could have supported the emergence of life.
• Context: Although the delta structures are currently covered by wind-sculpted dunes, their preserved morphologies remain distinct enough to validate the presence of a historic coastline.

This exotic form of ice just got weirder

Researchers paired ultrafast X-rays with specialized instruments to study the atomic stacking structures of superionic water – a hot, black and strangely conductive form of ice that is believed to exist in the center of giant ice planets like Neptune and Uranus.
Illustration Credit: Greg Stewart/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

Researchers hoped to clarify the boundaries between different types of superionic water – the hot, black ice believed to exist at the core of giant ice planets. Instead, they found multiple atomic stacking patterns coexisting in overlapping configurations never seen before in this phase of water. 

Superionic water – the hot, black and strangely conductive form of ice that exists in the center of distant planets – was predicted in the 1980s and first recreated in a laboratory in 2018. With each closer look, it continues to surprise researchers.

In a recent study published in Nature Communications, a team including researchers at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory made a surprising discovery: Multiple atomic packing structures can coexist under identical conditions in superionic water.

We finally know how the most common types of planets are created

Astronomers have now witnessed four baby planets in the V1298 Tau system in the process of becoming super-Earths and sub-Neptunes.
Image Credit: Astrobiology Center, NINS  

Thanks to the discovery of thousands of exoplanets to date, we know that planets bigger than Earth but smaller than Neptune orbit most stars. Oddly, our sun lacks such a planet. That’s been a source of frustration for planetary scientists, who can’t study them in as much detail as they’d like, leaving one big question: How did these planets form? 

Now we know the answer. 

An international team of astrophysicists from UCLA and elsewhere has witnessed four baby planets in the V1298 Tau system in the process of becoming super-Earths and sub-Neptunes. The findings are published in the journal Nature. 

“I’m reminded of the famous ‘Lucy’ fossil, one of our hominid ancestors that lived 3 million years ago and was one of the ‘missing links’ between apes and humans,” said UCLA professor of physics and astronomy and second author Erik Petigura. “V1298 Tau is a critical link between the star- and planet-forming nebulae we see all over the sky, and the mature planetary systems that we have now discovered by the thousands.”

A new study finds Jupiter’s moon Europa’s quiet seafloor may still hold keys for life

A “black smoker” at the Piccard hydrothermal field, 5,000 meters below the surface, on the Mid-Cayman Rise.
Photo Credit: Chris German / ROV Jason, ©WHOI, 2012

The giant planet Jupiter has nearly 100 known moons, but none have captured the imagination of scientists quite like Europa. Scientists suspect Europa has a salty ocean beneath its icy crust, holding twice as much water as all of Earth's oceans combined. For decades, scientists have wondered whether that ocean could harbor the right conditions for life, placing Europa near the top of the list of solar system bodies to explore.

A new study,  led by Washington University and involving Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), indicates it may lack modern-day tectonic activity at the seafloor that sheds new light on this topic. Using models that account for Europa’s size, rocky core, and Jupiter’s gravity, the team concludes that the moon likely lacks the tectonic activity, or seafloor volcanism, that gives rise to dramatic “black smoker” hot springs on Earth.

Planetary Science: In-Depth Description

Image Credit: Scientific Frontline / AI generated (Gemini)

Planetary Science is the cross-disciplinary scientific study of planets, moons, and planetary systems—including our Solar System and those orbiting other stars—aiming to understand their formation, evolution, and current physical and chemical states. By integrating principles from astronomy, geology, atmospheric science, and physics, planetary science seeks to decipher the history of matter in the solar neighborhood and determine the potential for habitability beyond Earth.

SwRI may have solved a mystery surrounding Uranus’ radiation belts

SwRI scientists compared space weather impacts of a fast solar wind structure (first panel) driving an intense solar storm at Earth in 2019 (second panel) with conditions observed at Uranus by Voyager 2 in 1986 (third panel) to potentially solve a 39-year-old mystery about the extreme radiation belts found. The "chorus wave" is a type of electromagnetic emission that may accelerate electrons and could have resulted from the solar storm.
Image Credit: Southwest Research Institute

Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) scientists believe they may have resolved a 39-year-old mystery about the radiation belts around Uranus. 

In 1986, when Voyager 2 made the first and only flyby of Uranus, it measured a surprisingly strong electron radiation belt at significantly higher levels than anticipated. Based on extrapolations from other planetary systems, Uranus’ electron radiation belt was off the charts. Since then, scientists have wondered how the Uranian system could support such an intense trapped electron radiation belt, at a planet unlike anything else in the solar system. 

Findings suggest red planet was warmer, wetter millions of years ago

Purdue University research into scattered kaolinite rocks on Mars’ surface shows the dry, dusty planet could have featured a rain-heavy climate billions of years ago.
Photo Credit: NASA

Rocks that stood out as light-colored dots on the reddish-orange surface of Mars now are the latest evidence that areas of the small planet may have once supported wet oases with humid climates and heavy rainfall comparable to tropical climates on Earth.

The rocks discovered by NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover are white, aluminum-rich kaolinite clay, which forms on Earth after rocks and sediment are leached of all other minerals by millions of years of a wet, rainy climate.

These findings were published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Communications Earth & Environment by lead author Adrian Broz, a Purdue University postdoctoral research associate in the lab of Briony Horgan, a long-term planner on NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover mission and professor of planetary science in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences in Purdue’s College of Science.