Science Archives

July 29, 2020July 29, 2020 by Evan Gough

A Group of Meteorites All Came From a Destroyed Planetesimal With a Magnetic Core

Samples from a rare meteorite family, including the one shown here, reveal that their parent planetesimal, formed in the earliest stages of the solar system, was a complex, layered object, with a molten core and solid crust similar to Earth. Photo credit: Carl Agee, Institute of Meteoritics, University of New Mexico. Background edited by MIT News.

Before our Solar System had planets, it had planetesimals. Scientists think that most of the meteorites that have struck Earth are fragments of these planetesimals. Scientists also think that these planetesimals either melted completely, very early in their history, or that they remained as little more than collections of rocks, or “rubble piles.”

But one family of meteorites, that have been found spread around the world, appear to come from a planetesimal that bucked that trend.

July 26, 2020July 26, 2020 by Nancy Atkinson

Radishes Can Likely Grow in Lunar Regolith

Radishes in the section with the least water germinated first and best.Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

For many of us, gardening has been a therapeutic distraction during this time of pandemic quarantine. But some researchers from the Jet Propulsion Lab have been gardening at home with a specific goal in mind: growing food on the Moon.

July 24, 2020July 24, 2020 by Evan Gough

What Cracked the Earth’s Outer Shell and Started its Plate Tectonics?

A snapshot of a model from the new work, showing the late stages of growth and coalescence of a new global fracture network. Fractures are in black / shadow, and colors show stresses (pink color denotes tensile stress, blue color denotes compressive stress). Image Credit: Tang et al, 2020.

Earth’s lithosphere is made up of seven large tectonic plates and a number of smaller ones. The theory of plate tectonics that describes how these plates move is about 50 years old. But there’s never really been an understanding of how this system developed, and how the Earth’s shell split into separate plates and started moving.

Now a group of researchers have a possible explanation.

July 20, 2020July 20, 2020 by Evan Gough

Astronomers Do the Math to Figure Out Exactly When Johannes Vermeer Painted this, More than 350 Years Ago

View of Delft is a famous oil painting by the Dutch Master Johannes Vermeer, painted ca. 1660–1661. Image Credit: By Johannes Vermeer - www.mauritshuis.nl : Home : Info : : Image, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=50398

Most of us will be forgotten only a generation or two after we pass. But some few of us will be remembered: great scientists, leaders, or generals, for example. But we can add history’s great artists to that list, and one in particular: Johannes Vermeer.

Vermeer was largely ignored during the two centures that followed his death, and died as other painters often did: penniless. But as more time has passed, the Dutch Baroque painter has grown in reputation, as historians increasingly recognize him as a master.

July 14, 2020July 14, 2020 by Evan Gough

Astronomers Have Mapped Out an Enormous Structure in the Universe Called the South Pole Wall

A projection of the South Pole Wall in celestial coordinates. Image Credit: Pomarède et al, 2020.

Galaxies aren’t spread evenly throughout space. They exist in groups, clusters, and superclusters. Our own Milky Way galaxy exists in an impossibly vast structure called the Laniakea supercluster. Laniakea was defined in 2014, and it contains over 100,000 galaxies.

Now a team of astronomers have discovered another immense feature beyond Laniakea, called the South Pole Wall.

July 10, 2020July 10, 2020 by Evan Gough

Even If We Cut Greenhouse Gas Emissions Tomorrow, it Would Take Decades for the Earth to Start Cooling Again

Our beautiful, precious, life-supporting Earth as seen on July 6, 2015 from a distance of one million miles by a NASA scientific camera aboard the Deep Space Climate Observatory spacecraft. Credits: NASA

If—or hopefully when—we cut our Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, we won’t notice much difference in the climate. The Earth’s natural systems take time to absorb carbon from the atmosphere. We may have to wait decades for the temperatures to drop.

Of course, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do it. It’s just that we have to temper our expectations a little.

July 7, 2020July 7, 2020 by Evan Gough

Betelgeuse Probably Dimmed Because of Enormous Starspots

An artist's impression of Betelgeuse. Its surface is covered by large star spots, which reduce its brightness. During their pulsations, such stars regularly release gas into their surroundings, which condenses into dust. Image Credit: MPIA graphics department

A few months ago we all watched as Betelgeuse dimmed. Between October 2019 and 22nd of February 2020 the star’s brightness dropped by a factor of about three. It went from magnitude 0.5, and from being the tenth-brightest star in the sky, to magnitude 1.7.

Naturally, we all wondered what was happening. Would it go supernova? Even though that was extremely unlikely, how could we help but wonder?

June 29, 2020June 29, 2020 by Evan Gough

More Evidence that Europa’s Oceans Could be Habitable

A "true color" image of the surface of Jupiter's moon Europa as seen by the Galileo spacecraft. In 2030, the Europa Clipper mission will start its close flybys of this ocean world. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SETI Institute

At first glance, Jupiter’s moon Europa doesn’t seem much like Earth. It’s a moon, not a planet, and it’s covered in ice. But it does have one important thing in common with Earth: a warm, salty ocean.

Now there’s even more evidence that Europa’s sub-surface ocean is habitable.

June 29, 2020June 29, 2020 by Evan Gough

The Bare Minimum Number of Martian Settlers? 110

If we ever colonize Mars, nature will have to accompany us. Artist's concept of a habitat for a Mars colony. Credit: NASA

So you want to colonize Mars, huh? Well Mars is a long ways away, and in order for a colony to function that far from Earthly support, things have to be thought out very carefully. Including how many people are needed to make it work.

A new study pegs the minimum number of settlers at 110.

June 26, 2020June 26, 2020 by Evan Gough

Do We Now Understand Why the Moon’s Near and Far Sides Look So Dramatically Different?

We intend to explore the Moon, use its resources, and use it as a jumping-off point for missions deeper into the Solar System. For that we need a Lunar GPS. Image Credit: NASA

The Moon is easily the most well-studied object in the Solar System, (other than Earth, of course.) But it still holds some puzzles for scientists. Why, for instance, is one side of the Moon so different from the other?