On New Year's Day 2019, a spacecraft known for its historic flyby of Pluto will take an unprecedented look into the distant past by flying right up to a frozen remnant of the original solar system.
planetary evolution
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Exoplanets: First Baby Pictures Unveiled
New observations of stars hundreds of light-years from Earth reveal evidence of planets still surrounded by disks of the primordial materials they grow from.
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Earth's Water Came from Space Dust During Planetary Formation
A new analysis of lava from the deep mantle indicates that water-soaked dust particles, rather than a barrage of icy comets, asteroids, or other bodies, delivered water to the newly forming Earth.
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Dawn Spacecraft Enters into Orbit Around Dwarf Planet Ceres
A 16-month investigation of the dwarf planet Ceres could reveal a lot about the most massive body in the asteroid belt and could advance our understanding of the formation of terrestrial planets.
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"Knobby Terrain" a Sign of Mars's Explosive Past
Newly identified knobby terrain related to ancient volcanoes on Mars hint that pyroclastic ash and rock flowed down slopes early in the red planet's history.
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Tiny Mineral Grains Could Drive Plate Tectonics
Scientists turn to granular scales to explain how plate tectonics may have evolved billions of years ago.
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Probing Exoplanet Interiors Through Lab Simulations
Laser-driven experiments on silica help scientists learn more about planetary formation and evolution.
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Tectonic Events May Have Triggered the Cambrian Explosion
A researcher proposes a tectonic mechanism that could have helped drive one of the biggest evolutionary events in history: the Cambrian Explosion.