“Ceres –the only dwarf planet in the inner Solar System–has gained a pivotal role in assessing the origin, evolution and distribution of organic species across the inner solar system,” said Southwest Research Institute scientist Simone Marchi, about high abundance of carbon on Ceres’ near surface, which could be due to an excess of organic matter, possibly formed locally due to water-rocks chemistry.”
Vast stores of helium from the Big Bang hidden in the Earth’s Core hint that the planet formed inside a solar nebula. A new study reports that helium-3, a rare isotope of helium gas with two protons and only one neutron in its nucleus, is leaking out of Earth’s core. Although normal helium with two protons and two neutrons can be fused within the interiors of stars, almost all helium-3 is from the Big Bang. The gas leak of helium-3 adds evidence that Earth formed inside a dense solar nebula, which has long been debated.
Scientists on NASA’s New Horizons mission team have revealed a strange world of massive ice volcanoes and a possible hidden ocean. The NASA astronomers have determined that multiple episodes of cryovolcanism may have created some kinds of surface structures on Pluto, the likes of which are not seen anywhere else in the solar system. Material expelled from below the surface of this distant, icy planet could have created a region of large domes and rises flanked by hills, mounds, and depressions. New Horizons was NASA’s mission to make the first exploration of Pluto and its system of five moons with its July, 2015 flyby.
The formation of life from raw chemicals was more favorable in the early phases of our Solar System
“Venus is like Earth in so many ways,” explained the late physicist, Stephen Hawking. “A sort of kissing cousin. She’s almost the same size as Earth, a touch closer to the Sun. And, she has an atmosphere that could crush a submarine.”
Avi Shporer, Research Scientist, MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research. A Google Scholar, Avi was formerly a NASA Sagan Fellow at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). His motto, not surprisingly, is a quote from Carl Sagan: “Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.”
Our Universe provided some fascinating news stories over the past few days, ranging from Antimatter Stars of the Milky Way to Can Early Dark Energy Save the Universe to Our Weird Solar System.
The Galaxy Report newsletter brings you daily news of space and science that has the capacity to provide clues to the mystery of our existence and add a much needed cosmic perspective in our current Anthropocene Epoch.
Gaia Mission Unlocking Secrets of the Milky Way to New Mystery on the Moon (The Galaxy Report)
The Curious Case of Titan’s Missing CloudsMystery of Gravity Could Soon Be Solved to Will Mars Samples Endanger Earth? (The Galaxy Report)
“Information Can Escape a Black Hole Both On the Outside and Possibly to Another Universe” (Stephen Hawking’s Paradox)
The Fourth Copernican Revolution: “Our Universe May Be One Patch of Space and Time In a Infinite Archipelago” (Weekend Feature)
Human Imprint on Earth’s Rocks to Our Inner Fish (Planet Earth Report)What the First Two Pictures of Black Holes Tell Us to What If Aliens We are Looking for are AI? (The Galaxy Report)
The Most Massive Objects in the Modern Universe –Primordial Relics of the Cosmic Microwave Background
Antarctica’s ‘Factorian Deep’ to Can We Think Without Language? (Planet Earth Report)
Mystery of Our Lopsided Universe to China’s Alien-Signal False Alarm (The Galaxy Report)
