A new computer simulation adds a crust to the Earth-smashing planet Theia, showing how a proto-Moon could form from the leftovers.
planetary evolution
Posted inNews
White Dwarf Spotted Devouring the Planet It Birthed
Exotic chemical elements in the atmosphere of a dead star hint at the presence of a planet that formed after the star’s death—the first such second-generation planet ever seen.
Posted inOpinions
What We Could Lose by Trying to Make Mars Habitable
The rock, ice, and atmosphere of Mars hold a largely unread archive. Terraforming could erase it before the biggest scientific questions are answered.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Super-Earths May Be Solid Deep Inside Their Mantles
New estimates show that a mineral likely common in these rocky planets’ interiors is resistant to melting, even at high temperatures.
Posted inFeatures
Kelsey Young: “Copy, Moon Joy”
She came to NASA with the goal of making planetary science front and center of the Artemis missions. She succeeded.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
What Australian Lakes Showed Us About Martian Hydrology
Studying the hydrology of the Yilgarn Craton reveals how the Red Planet may have evolved.
Posted inNews
Oddball Moon Might Be a Neptune Original After All
Infrared observations of Nereid hint that it might have formed in orbit around Neptune, unlike most of the planet’s other satellites.
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Interstellar Comet Was Born in a Very Cold Place
3I/ATLAS’s chemistry suggests that it formed in a much colder environment than our solar system did.
Posted inEditors' Vox
Terrestrial Planets Guide Our Search for Habitable Exoplanets
Earth and its rocky neighbours reveal how planetary processes—core-mantle differentiation, crust formation, tectonics, and geochemical cycling—between interior and surficial reservoirs shape habitability.
Posted inNews
The Planet That Shouldn’t Be There
A newly discovered exoplanet suggests that a different way to build planetary systems could be possible.