Paris (ESA) Oct 12, 2023
Nestled between the colossal martian 'Grand Canyon' (Valles Marineris) and the tallest volcanoes in the Solar System (the Tharsis region) lies Noctis Labyrinthus - a vast system of deep and steep valleys that stretches out for around 1190 km (roughly the length of Italy here on Earth). This video visualises a flight over the eastern part of Noctis Labyrinthus as seen by Mars Express's High

Stanford CA (SPX) Oct 12, 2023
For decades, scientists have pondered the mystery of the moon's ancient magnetism. Based on analyses of lunar samples, its now-deceased magnetic field may have been active for more than 1.5 billion years - give or take a billion years. Scientists believe it was generated like the Earth's via a dynamo process, whereby the spinning and churning of conductive liquid metal within a rocky planet's co

Beijing (XNA) Oct 12, 2023
China has announced plans to build the world's largest deep-sea neutrino telescope in the western Pacific Ocean. The project, called "Trident", is expected to be completed in 2030 and will be used to study the universe's most extreme phenomena, such as supernova explosions and black hole eruptions. Neutrinos are tiny particles that have no electrical charge and very little mass. They

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Oct 12, 2023
Fast radio bursts, or FRBs, are an astronomical mystery, with their exact cause and origins still unconfirmed. These intense bursts of radio energy are invisible to the human eye, but show up brightly on radio telescopes. Previous studies have noted broad similarities between the energy distribution of repeat FRBs, and that of earthquakes and solar flares. However, new research at the Univ

Bristol UK (SPX) Oct 12, 2023
The study, published in Nature, reports the sighting of two ice giant exoplanets colliding around a sun-like star, creating a blaze of light and plumes of dust. Its findings show the bright heat afterglow and resulting dust cloud, which moved in front of the parent star dimming it over time. The international team of astronomers was formed after an enthusiast viewed the light curve of the

Beijing, China (SPX) Oct 12, 2023
As the nearest celestial body to Earth, Moon's space environment is distinctive to Earth's mainly because of lack of a significant atmosphere/ionosphere and a global magnetic field. From a global perspective, solar wind can bombard its surface, and the solar wind materials cumulated in the soil record the evolution of the Solar System. Many small-scale remanent magnetic fields are scattere

Houston TX (SPX) Oct 12, 2023
Initial studies of the 4.5-billion-year-old asteroid Bennu sample collected in space and brought to Earth by NASA show evidence of high-carbon content and water, which together could indicate the building blocks of life on Earth may be found in the rock. NASA made the news Wednesday from its Johnson Space Center in Houston where leadership and scientists showed off the asteroid material for the