Planets
Diamond Rain on Ice Giants Could Influence Their Magnetic Fields
Imagine Jupiter with a diamond core the size of Earth. That's what science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke described in…
Planetary Surfaces: Why study them? Can they help us find life elsewhere?
Universe Today recently explored the importance of studying impact craters and what they can teach us about finding life beyond…
Three Iron Rings Around A Star Show Where Planets are Forming
Researchers using the ESO's Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) have found three iron rings around a young star about 500…
It Doesn’t Take Much to Get Tilted Planets
Chinese and Indian astronomers were the first to measure Earth's axial tilt accurately, and they did it about 3,000 years…
ALMA Takes Next-Level Images of a Protoplanetary Disk
The ESO's Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) is perched high in the Chilean Andes. ALMA is made of 66 high-precision…
Astronomers See the Afterglow Where Two Ice Giant Planets Collided
What would happen if two giant planets collided? It would be terrifying to behold if it happened in our Solar…
When did the First Continents Appear in the Universe?
On Earth, continents are likely necessary to support life. Continents 'float' on top of the Earth's viscous mantle, and heat…
JWST Sees Newly Forming Planets Swimming in Water
One big question about Earth’s formation is, where did all the water come from? New data from the James Webb…
One in Ten Stars Ate a Jupiter (Or Bigger)
In space, cataclysmic events happen to stars all the time. Some explode as supernovae, some get torn apart by black…
Astronomers Watch a Star Gulp Down One of its Planets
A star like our Sun only shines the way it does because of its intrinsic balance. Stars are massive, and…