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…

9 months ago

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…

9 months ago

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…

9 months ago

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…

11 months ago

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…

11 months ago

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…

12 months ago

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…

1 year ago

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…

1 year ago

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…

1 year ago

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…

1 year ago