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How some planets can survive their stars’ deaths
A new "survival guide for exoplanets" outlines how different kinds of planets fare when their host star dies. It suggests the smallest rocky worlds are the most likely to escape annihilation.
May 19, 2019
Video: Fly over Curiosity’s route on Mars
Follow the route of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover, as it moves to a new part of Mount Sharp, into an area scientists call the “clay-bearing unit”.
May 17, 2019
New insights about Haumea’s enigmatic ring
Dwarf planet Haumea orbits in Pluto's realm of the solar system. It's the most distant little world known to have a ring. Scientists in Brazil have new insights on how Haumea's ring maintains its nearly perfect circular shape.
May 16, 2019
Shrinking moon might be generating moonquakes
The moon is shrinking as its interior cools. As it shrinks, its crust wrinkles and cracks, forming "thrust faults" that, according to a new analysis, generate moonquakes.
May 16, 2019
How Venus and Mars can teach us about Earth
The atmospheres of our 2 neighbors Mars and Venus can teach us a lot about past and future scenarios for our own planet.
May 16, 2019
Lightsail 2 set to launch in June
"We are go for launch!" said Planetary Society CEO Bill Nye. Funded by space enthusiasts, LightSail 2 aims to accomplish the 1st-ever, controlled solar sail flight in Earth orbit next month.
May 14, 2019
Simulating stars’ sounds to reveal their secrets
"A cello sounds like a cello because of its size and shape,” said astronomer Jacqueline Goldstein. “The vibrations of stars also depend on their size and structure."
May 13, 2019
Asteroid strike simulation blasts New York City
It seems like play, but they're serious. Every year, at the Planetary Defense Conference, asteroid experts from around the globe run days-long simulations of asteroids headed for major cities. In 2019, it was New York City's turn.
May 13, 2019
What Mars’ giant dust storm taught us
Before we send people to Mars, we need to understand more about how Martian dust could affect astronauts and their equipment. Here are 3 things we’ve learned from the planet’s 2018 global dust storm.
May 12, 2019
Star formation burst created 50% of Milky Way disk stars
Analysis of data from the Gaia satellite shows a powerful burst of star formation - a stellar baby boom - in our Milky Way galaxy 2 to 3 billion years ago. This single burst might have created half the stars in the galaxy's flat disk.
May 10, 2019
