A newly understood collision mechanism could explain some peculiarities of Pluto and its moons.
solar system
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Life’s Building Blocks Found in Bennu Samples
The discovery of amino acids, abundant ammonia, and the bases of DNA and RNA on asteroid Bennu suggest that materials essential to life might be widespread throughout the solar system.
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Magnetic Meteorites May Explain How the Solar System Assembled
Faint magnetic properties in primitive asteroid fragments suggest an early magnetic field strong enough to shepherd the growth of the outer planets.
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Pluto’s Small Moons Are Unlike Any Other
The strange blend of surface chemistry on Nix and Hydra raises big question about the evolution of the Pluto system.
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Meteorite Sheds Light on the Moon’s Impact History
Analysis has revealed the South Pole–Aitken basin is significantly older than other impact basins on the Moon, a finding that has implications for the evolution of the early solar system.
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Earth May Survive the Sun’s Demise
A distant white dwarf hosts an Earth-like planet in an orbit that might be similar to Earth’s if it survives the Sun’s red giant phase.
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Another Ring of Objects Might Exist in the Outer Solar System
A search for a new target for NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft suggests that space beyond the Kuiper Belt could be an unexpectedly crowded place.
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Parts of Mars Might Be Younger Than We Thought
Data from InSight’s seismometer suggest more impactors strike the Red Planet than expected.
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A Binary Asteroid System Gets Its Geological Close-Up
Researchers are learning more about the geology and evolution of the binary asteroid system Didymos from high-resolution imagery collected by the Double Asteroid Redirection Test mission.