AMS Detector Reveals Surprising Surplus of Cosmic Rays Made of Deuterons
Deuterons — atomic nuclei made up of a proton and a neutron — are thought to form in the same way as helium-3 nuclei, in collisions between primary helium-4 nuclei…
New Study Explains Why Venus is Extremely Dry
Despite its Earth-like size and source material, Venus is extremely dry, indicating near-total water loss to space. Using computer simulations, planetary scientists from the University of Colorado, Boulder and the…
BepiColombo Detects Oxygen and Carbon Ions in Magnetosphere of Venus
In August 2021, the ESA/JAXA Mercury-bound BepiColombo spacecraft performed its second flyby of Venus and provided a short-lived observation of its induced magnetosphere. The spacecraft detected cold oxygen and carbon…
Europa Produces Less Oxygen than Previously Thought
Using data from the Jovian Auroral Distributions Experiment (JADE) instrument onboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft, planetary scientists have calculated the rate of oxygen being produced at Jupiter’s icy moon Europa to…
Webb Finds Evidence of Hydrothermal Processes in Interiors of Eris and Makemake
The icy dwarf planets Eris and Makemake have surfaces bearing methane ice of unknown origin. According to an analysis of data from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, Eris and…
Webb Detects Hydrogen Peroxide on Ganymede
Jupiter’s moon Ganymede is the only satellite in the Solar System known to have an intrinsic magnetic field. Interactions between this field and the magnetosphere of Jupiter are expected to…
Iron-Rich Meteoritic and Volcanic Particles May Have Promoted Origin of Life Reactions on Early Earth
Precursors of the molecules needed for the origin of life may have been generated by chemical reactions promoted by meteoritic and volcanic particles approximately 4.4 billion years ago, says a…
Saturn’s Rings are Heating Gas Giant’s Upper Atmosphere, Astronomers Say
The most feasible explanation is that icy ring particles raining down onto Saturn’s atmosphere cause this heating, according to a team of astronomers who analyzed several datasets obtained by the…