New data from Ol Doinyo Lengai in Tanzania suggest that carbon-rich volcanic activity could be responsible for the mysterious “hollows” observed on the surface of Mercury.
Matthew R. Francis
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The Forensics of a Skyscraper-Sized Tsunami
A landslide in Tracy Arm Fjord in Alaska created the second-largest tsunami on record. A new analysis links this abrupt event to the retreat of a glacier and, ultimately, to climate change.
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Moon Mission Data Reveal Unexpected Cosmic Ray “Shadow”
A particle detector on the Chang’e-4 lunar lander showed a surprising zone of reduced radiation stretching out from Earth at a strange angle, with potential implications for future astronauts.
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Asteroid Hosts All Ingredients for DNA and RNA
Samples collected from asteroid Ryugu contain the four genetic “letters” of DNA, reinforcing the hypothesis that the chemical origins of life were present when the solar system began.
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Titanic Shake-Up Could Explain Saturn’s Young Rings and Strange Moons
A new model shows how the migration of Titan could have destroyed another moon, creating Saturn’s rings and the moon Hyperion. And, the model suggests, this all happened in the past billion years.
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Rare Hot Jupiters Could Reveal How All Giant Planets Form
A new analysis shows that the way massive planets migrate after their formation helps determine whether they have companion planets. The process hints at planetary formation in general.
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Primordial Impact May Explain Why the Moon Is Asymmetrical
Analysis of surface samples from the Chang’e-6 mission suggests that an asteroid may have vaporized parts of the lunar mantle, suppressing volcanic activity on the farside of the Moon.
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Planet-Eating Stars Hint at Earth’s Ultimate Fate
A sampling of aging Sun-like stars demonstrates that they likely eat their closest planets.
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What Tumbling Asteroids Tell Us About Their Innards
Data from the Gaia space observatory reveal that many slowly spinning asteroids rotate chaotically. A new theory links that chaos to their inner structure and history.
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Melting Cylinders of Ice Reveal an Iceberg’s Tipping Point
New lab experiments on cylinders of pure ice shed light on how icebergs flip over as they melt, demonstrating the link between a warming ocean and small-scale events that can have rippling consequences.