News Staff, Author at rustleeast

InSight Finds Evidence for Molten Silicate Layer above Martian Metallic Core

By News Staff October 25, 2023

Mars’ liquid iron alloy core is surrounded by a layer of fully molten silicate (magma) about 150 km thick, according to a pair of papers published in the journal Nature.…

Ancient Mars was Planet of Rivers, Planetary Scientists Say

By News Staff October 25, 2023

Ancient river deposits exist across Mars and can be identified in satellite data by erosional landforms called fluvial ridges. Fluvial ridges take the shape of ancient river deposits, and are…

Moon is Nearly 40 Million Years Older than Previously Thought

By News Staff October 24, 2023

By analyzing tiny lunar zircon crystals gathered by Apollo 17 astronauts in 1972, planetary scientists recalculated the age of the Moon. Although previous assessments estimated the Moon as 4.425 billion…

InSight’s Largest Marsquake Was Likely Caused by Geological Processes, Study Says

By News Staff October 18, 2023

During its time on Mars, NASA’s InSight (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) lander recorded over 1,300 seismic events, known as marsquakes. Of these, a number were…

Planetary Researchers Probe Origin of Complex Organics on Ceres

By News Staff October 17, 2023

How aliphatic organic compounds originated on the dwarf planet Ceres has been the subject of intensive research since their discovery by NASA’s Dawn mission in 2017. Some studies have concluded…

Comet Airburst Initiated Transition to Agriculture 12,800 Years Ago, Scientists Say

By News Staff October 16, 2023

Around 12,800 years ago, Earth collided with fragments of a disintegrating comet, triggering Younger Dryas climate change; this event created environmental conditions at Abu Hureyra, Syria, that favored the earliest…

Sample Material from Asteroid Bennu Contains Carbon and Water, NASA Scientists Say

By News Staff October 11, 2023

The sample was collected by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification and Security, Regolith Explorer) spacecraft on October 20, 2020 and arrived on Earth on September 24, 2023. A…

Severe Space Weather Events Disrupt Nocturnal Bird Migrations, Researchers Find

By News Staff October 11, 2023

Earth’s magnetic field is occasionally but regularly impacted by bursts of energy from the Sun (space weather), such as coronal mass ejections. Birds and other animals depend on the geomagnetic…

Extreme Solar Storm Hit Our Planet 14,300 Years Ago, Subfossil Tree-Rings Show

By News Staff October 9, 2023

In new research, scientists from the University of Leeds and elsewhere measured radiocarbon levels in ancient trees preserved within the eroded banks of the Drouzet River in the Southern French…

Kuiper Belt Object Arrokoth’s Large Mounds Have Common Origin, New Study Suggests

By News Staff October 3, 2023

The 5-km-long mounds that dominate the appearance of the larger lobe of Kuiper Belt object (486958) Arrokoth are similar enough to suggest a common origin, according to new research. New…