The rings are fairly shiny despite being bombarded by dust, indicating that they haven’t been around for very long.
solar system
Posted inNews
A Mission to Uranus Could Help Find Planet 9
Narrowing down the search is essential for gaining time on a high-powered telescope that could spot the hypothesized planet directly.
Posted inNews
Molten Meteorites Didn’t Deliver Earth’s Water
A new study has ruled out large, once-molten meteorites called achondrites as sources of Earth’s water.
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Quaoar’s Ring Defies Gravity
The dwarf planet’s ring makes astronomers question whether a long-held theory about ring and moon formation needs tweaking.
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Mercury Isn’t Alone in Orbit, and Scientists Don’t Know Why
A cloud of dust traces the innermost planet’s orbital path. By all accounts, it shouldn’t be there.
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NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test Is a Smashing Success
The mission, focused on the Didymos-Dimorphos binary asteroid system, proved that an asteroid’s orbit can be altered by kinetic impactor technology.
Posted inFeatures
Marine Science Goes to Space
Space and ocean scientists take a splash course in multidisciplinary science to chart our solar system’s ocean worlds.
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Could Jupiter’s Heat Waves Help Solve a Planetary Energy Crisis?
Infrared observations reveal that Jupiter’s upper atmosphere is much warmer than models predict. The discovery may be a clue to finding missing heat sources in other giant planets.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
MESSENGER Reveals a More Dynamic Mercury Surface
Image pairs indicate that 99% of the planet’s surface could be altered in the next 25 million years.
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Tiny “Pancakes” Suggest Some Asteroids May Stay Active
Analysis of a meteorite that fell in Costa Rica shows that its parent body may resemble the asteroid Bennu.