November 2018
BepiColombo – a mission to explore Mercury
...Mercury is also a key laboratory for surface-bounded exospheres where, as the name implies, the boundary of a planet’s exosphere is the planet’s surface. In the case of Mercury, the density of its exosphere is too low for molecules to behave as a gas...
06 April 2020
Planets can form second atmospheres rich in CO, new study shows
... today. Furthermore, a late gas accretion scenario is a more favourable and efficient method for accreting volatiles on a terrestrial planet than if it was bombarded my comets and meteorites, say the team - a situation that many think was responsible...
25 January 2021
Unique six-exoplanet system challenges theories of how planets form
... greatly increase the stability of planetary configurations by preventing close encounters and collisions, identifying how and where planets like this form is a very important but as yet unanswered question in planetary science. As such, the TOI-178...
March 2016
Saving Earth from an Expanding Sun
... effect that erased its oceans and left a desert planet, coated with dense clouds of sulphuric acid and an... Still, like me, you’d probably hanker to do something to help the planet that’s been so kind (and patient) with us. I have some emotional...
January 2018
When it comes to water Mars may not be the promised land
... the fate of the atmosphere and of the water resources of the planet. It has been estimated that 1029 joules of energy released by a... views of many scientists, the water inventory of the planet may not be as much as anticipated. Assuming that ...
19 January 2016
Giant double-planet system around an evolved star detected by astronomers
...also possible that the star might have harboured a third planet that was engulfed as the star expanded, causing the ...their neighbours to cause significant disruption. The number of multi-planet systems found to date, regardless of the central star’s ...
