Tag: Planetary Formation
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Rogue Planet Eats Like a Star: A Galactic Anomaly Unveiled
Introduction: A Planet That Breaks the Mold Astronomers have spotted a so-called rogue planet that behaves almost like a newborn star, gulping gas and dust at an extraordinary rate. This runaway planet, roaming interstellar space without a parent sun, is redefining what scientists thought possible for worlds that float freely through the void. What Makes…
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Rogue Planet Glutton: A Runaway World Eating Gas Like a Star
Introduction: A Planet That Breaks the Rules In a surprising twist to our understanding of planetary physics, astronomers have identified a rogue planet that behaves more like a star than a typical world. Unlike the planets in our solar system, which orbit stars or drift in quiet solitude, this runaway planet appears to be devouring…
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How Planets Get Wet: Water Creation During Planet Formation
Introduction: A Wet Start for Planets For years, scientists have wondered how rocky planets acquire their water—whether it is delivered after formation by comets and asteroids, or whether water can emerge in the early molten stages of planet building. Recent work published in Nature by researchers affiliated with Carnegie and other institutions suggests a compelling…
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Decoding Deuterium in Saturn’s Ice: JWST Reveals Uniform D/H in Moon Water
Overview: Probing the D/H Ratio in Saturn’s Moon Ice The deuterium-to-hydrogen (D/H) ratio in water ice is a key fingerprint of how water formed and evolved in the early solar system. In giant planet systems, the D/H value can preserve the history of solid materials—ices and pebbles—that coalesced into moons, and it can reflect the…
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Deuterated Water Ice on Saturn’s Satellites: Unveiling D/H Ratios
New JWST Detections Reveal Deuterium-Enriched Ice on Saturnian Moons The deuterium-to-hydrogen (D/H) ratio in water ice is a key tracer of how and where planetary bodies acquired their water. A recent study using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) reports robust spectroscopic detections of the 4.14 μm O-D stretch absorption on mid-sized Saturnian satellites. This…
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Deuterated Water Ice on Saturn Satellites: JWST Reveals Uniform D/H Across Mid-Sized Moons
New JWST Spectroscopy Maps Water Deuteration on Saturn’s Moons In a groundbreaking study, astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) report robust detections of the 4.14 μm O-D stretch in water ice on the mid-sized satellites of Saturn. This spectral feature is analogous to the familiar 3 μm water O-H stretch and serves as…
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What’s Odd About the Moon’s Largest Crater—and Why Artemis Astronauts Are Headed There
Introduction: A Giant Crater That Holds Inside Secrets The Moon’s far side hosts the Solar System’s largest known impact basin: the South Pole-Aitken (SPA) basin. Spanning roughly 1,930 kilometers north-south and about 1,600 kilometers east-west, this ancient scar on the Moon’s crust formed around 4.3 billion years ago when a colossal asteroid struck the young…
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Water’s Ultraviolet Fingerprint Detected in Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS
Interstellar Ice Reaches Our Solar System For millions of years, a fragment of ice and dust wandered between the stars. This summer, that cosmic traveler—named 3I/ATLAS—made a rare entry into our solar system, becoming only the third confirmed interstellar comet. Its journey has already begun to reshape our understanding of how planetary materials form and…
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Ultraviolet fingerprint of water detected in interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS
Interstellar visitors and a long-awaited water signal For millions of years, a fragment of ice and dust drifted between the stars, a sealed bottle released into the cosmic ocean. This summer, that bottle washed ashore in our solar system as 3I/ATLAS, only the third known interstellar comet. In a landmark observation, Auburn University scientists used…
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How to Discover a Planet: From 51 Pegasi b to Exoplanets
Introduction: The moment that changed our view of the cosmos On October 6, 1995, at a scientific meeting in Florence, Italy, two Swiss astronomers announced a finding that would forever alter our understanding of the universe: a planet orbiting a star other than the Sun. Michel Mayor and his Ph.D. student Didier Queloz, working at…