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Zircons formed in the hellish Chernobyl meltdown are changing how geologists understand their favourite crystals.
There was little time for water from the Earth’s atmosphere to contaminate the meteorite after it fell.
Trustees of the Natural History Museum
In 2021, searchers recovered a meteorite that fell over the UK just hours earlier. Scientists have now reconstructed its story.
CTIO / NOIRLab / SOAR / NSF / AURA/ T. Kareta (Lowell Observatory), M. Knight (US Naval Academy)
Five new studies show smashing spacecraft into asteroids could be a viable way to defend Earth from threatening space rocks.
A satellite image of Lake Bosumtwi. It filled a meteorite impact crater.
USGS/ NASA Landsat/Orbital Horizon/Gallo Images/Getty Images
It’s time to get more Ghanaians interested in this fascinating, important aspect of science.
Sarah McMullan / UKFN / Global Fireball Observatory
Within hours of its landing, samples of the Winchcombe meteorite had been recovered and its origins tracked back beyond Mars to the asteroid belt.
Elena11/Shutterstock
Believe it or not, this sort-of happened before in Earth’s history – and now we have the Moon.
NASA / JPL-Caltech
In an extraterrestrial first, scientists have linked seismic waves on Mars to meteorite impact craters spotted via satellite.
NASA/ESA/CSA, A Carter (UCSC), the ERS 1386 team, and A. Pagan (STScI)
The James Webb Space Telescope just released its first-ever exoplanet image. Here’s what’s so exciting about it, and what we can stand to learn.
NASA
By tracking a meteorite found in Morocco back to its origin in an asteroid crater on Mars millions of years ago, scientists can learn more about how the planets formed.
Sand blown by wind into ripples within Victoria Crater at Meridiani Planum on Mars, as photographed by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on October 3, 2006.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/Cornell/Ohio State University
There are many bodies in the solar system we can’t easily access. But observations of their winds and sediments reveal a surprising amount.
Artist’s impression of a giant planet forming.
NASA, ESA, STScI, Joseph Olmsted (STScI)
A glimpse of a distant Jupiter-sized exoplanet sheds light on how gas giants form.
Earth’s interior 80 million years ago with hot structures in yellow to red (darker is shallower) and cold structures in blue (darker is deeper).
Ömer Bodur/Nature
Ancient blobs deep inside the Earth gather together and break apart like continents, according to new research.
Thongsuk7824/Shutterstock
Plus, a section of a rocket is about to crash on the Moon. What scientists hope to learn from it. Listen to The Conversation Weekly podcast.
All moons and planets are constantly under barrage from asteroids and comets.
NASA via WikimediaCommons
Across the solar system, asteroids and comets crash into moons and planets every day. The rocket collision will provide researchers with important data on how these collisions work.
ISAS / JAXA
The Hayabusa2 mission brought a piece of asteroid Ryugu back to Earth, where it has helped scientists resolve a long-standing puzzle.
Nasa
The mission is set to launch in March 2022. Here’s what you need to know.
Hubble: NASA, ESA, and Q.D. Wang (University of Massachusetts, Amherst); Spitzer: NASA, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and S. Stolovy (Spitzer Science Center/Caltech)
As we await the launch of the James Webb Space telescope, it’s timely to look back on what previous generations of telescopes have shown us.
SPP 1992 (Patricia Klein)
Most of what we know about planets outside our Solar System relates to gas-giant planets. A new study has identified and characterised a smaller exoplanet.
Curtin University
Tiny pieces of an asteroid have revealed an unlikely origin for much of the water in Earth’s oceans.
CNSA Lunar Exploration and Space Engineering Center
Volcanic Moon rocks collected by a Chinese probe last year are around 2 billion years old, a new analysis shows. That’s a billion years younger than those brought back by the Apollo and Luna missions.