To trace how crucial ingredients for life arrived at Earth, scientists track noble gases. Now, improved methods are drawing new clues from krypton, the most cryptic of noble gases.
planetary evolution
Posted inNews
Giant Planet’s Formation Caught in Action
Astronomers took a direct image of a massive protoplanet embedded in a protoplanetary disk. The system provides strong evidence for an as-yet-unconfirmed theory of planet formation.
Posted inNews
The Possible Evolution of an Exoplanet’s Atmosphere
Scientific sleuths explore data gathered trillions of kilometers away and put forth different, and often conflicting, ideas to reconstruct the gaseous envelope on a distant rocky exoplanet, GJ 1132 b.
Posted inNews
Gap in Exoplanet Size Shifts with Age
Smaller planets are scarcer in younger systems and larger planets are lacking in older systems, according to new research that analyzed hundreds of exoplanets.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
How Not to Homogenize a Planet
Even the strong heating from short-lived aluminium-26 (26Al) would not be able to homogenize the interior of a Mars‐sized planetary embryo.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Is Atmospheric Oxygen a Planetary Signature for Life?
While some Earth-like worlds can generate significant O2 only by biology, “waterworlds” and “desert worlds” can build up O2 even without life because of chemical changes from atmosphere loss to space.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Decoding the Age of the Ice at Mars’s North Pole
Exposure to sunlight creates telltale patterns in the polar ice cap that change over time, potentially providing insight into the climatic history of the Red Planet.
Posted inFeatures
Earth’s Core Is in the Hot Seat
How old is Earth’s inner core? High-pressure and high-temperature experiments suggest that our planet’s inner furnace may be much younger than expected.
Posted inNews
A Longer-Lived Magnetic Field for Mars
New research indicates Mars’s dynamo may have been active for millions of years longer than previously thought.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Two Moons and a Magnetosphere
Decades of research have illuminated how Io and Europa shape—and are shaped by—Jupiter’s giant magnetosphere.