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.
Space & Planets
Posted inNews
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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Jupiter's Europa Helps Earthlings See Sister Moon's Volcano
By briefly slipping between Earth and sister Jovian moon Io, Europa fortuitously enabled an Earth-based telescope to observe, with greater detail than ever before, a huge, puzzling volcano on Io.
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F. Curtis Michel (1934–2015)
A veteran Air Force pilot who cofounded the Space Science Department at Rice University, Michel contributed to high-energy astrophysics, space plasma physics, and planetary science.
Posted inEditors' Vox
GICs: The Bane of Technology-Dependent Societies
Geomagnetically Induced Currents can cause voltage swings, transformer heating, and reactive power loss in high-voltage power transmission systems.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
What Makes Jupiter's Aurora Pulse?
The aurora crowning Jupiter's poles—the most powerful in the solar system—flares up when plasma is injected into its magnetic field.
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The Dwarf Planet That Came in from the Cold—Maybe
The presence of ammonia-rich clay on much of the surface of Ceres suggests that this dwarf planet—the largest object in the asteroid belt—may have formed far out in the solar system, then wandered in.
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Pluto: In the Icebox but Maybe Still Cookin'
New evidence of ice volcanoes and of middle-aged terrains on Pluto's surface suggests that the dwarf planet has remained geologically active ever since it first formed billions of years ago.
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New Spin on Pluto's Moons
Strangely speedy rotation rates of Pluto's tiny orbiting companions show up in a trove of images taken as the New Horizons spacecraft approached the dwarf planet last spring and early summer.
Posted inEditors' Vox
First Results from the MAVEN Mission to Mars
Geophysical Research Letters publishes First Results from the MAVEN Mission to Mars, demonstrating a remarkable achievement of NASA's MAVEN team and the broader scientific community.