Planetary Science

  1. Planetary Science

    Music to alien ears

    Saturn's moon Titan may be the best rock concert venue in the solar system, according to computer simulations of sound propagation on other worlds.

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  2. Planetary Science

    Eris dwarfs Pluto

    Ex-planet Pluto suffers another demotion, as observations show that it's much less massive than Eris, another distant denizen of the outer solar system.

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  3. Planetary Science

    Shifting Ocean: Tipsy Mars may explain undulating shoreline

    Evidence that Mars once had a vast ocean gains support from a proposal that the planet was tipped halfway over on its side several billion years ago.

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  4. Planetary Science

    Powering Enceladus’ plumes

    The action of Saturn's gravity is responsible for plumes of water vapor shooting out from cracks on the moon Enceladus.

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  5. Planetary Science

    Violent Past: Young sun withstood a supernova blast

    A big bully pummeled the infant solar system, first by blasting it with a massive wind, then by exploding nearby, driving shock waves into the fledgling solar system and irrevocably altering its chemistry.

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  6. Planetary Science

    Water World: Extrasolar planet is loaded with hot ice

    Astronomers have found a Neptune-size planet outside the solar system that's composed mainly of water solidified under high pressure.

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  7. Planetary Science

    Liquid Center: Mercury has a molten core, radar reveals

    Mercury is hot stuff: It's got a core that's at least partially molten, a new radar study of the planet's spin reveals.

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  8. Planetary Science

    A solar forecast

    Solar activity, which waxes and wanes in an 11-year cycle, will most likely begin its next round in March 2008 and peak sometime between late 2011 and mid 2012.

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  9. Planetary Science

    In the Zone: Extrasolar planet with the potential for life

    Astronomers this week announced that they had found Earth's closest known analog outside the solar system, an object with an average temperature that may allow water to be liquid on its surface.

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  10. Planetary Science

    A hexagon on the ringed planet

    NASA scientists are puzzled by a giant, hexagon-shaped feature that covers Saturn's entire north pole.

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  11. Planetary Science

    Northern Exposure: The inhospitable side of the galaxy?

    Our solar system's periodic motion from one side of the galaxy to the other could expose life on Earth to massive amounts of cosmic rays and cause recurring, catastrophic mass extinctions.

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  12. Planetary Science

    Little Enceladus disturbs Saturn’s magnetic field

    Saturn's tiny moon Enceladus is acting as a brake on the giant planet's magnetic field.

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