planetesimals
White Dwarfs are Often Polluted With Heavier Elements. Now We Know Why
When stars exhaust their hydrogen fuel at the end of their main sequence phase, they undergo core collapse and shed…
What Happens to Solar Systems When Stars Become White Dwarfs?
In a couple billion years, our Sun will be unrecognizable. It will swell up and become a red giant, then…
The Meteorites That Made Earth Were Filled With Water
According to the most widely accepted scientific theory, our Solar System formed from a nebula of dust and gas roughly…
Planetesimals Are Buffeted by Wind in their Nebula, Throwing Debris into Space
Before planets form around a young star, the protosolar disk is populated with innumerable planetesimals. Over time, these planetesimals combine…
Arrokoth is Covered in Bizarre Mounds
When New Horizons flew past Arrokoth in 2019, it revealed close-up images of this enigmatic Kuiper Belt Object for the…
Earth’s Water is 4.5 Billion Years Old
The origin of Earth's water has been an enduring mystery. There are different hypotheses and theories explaining how the water…
Asteroids Didn’t Create the Moon’s Largest Craters. Left-Over Planetesimals Did
The Moon's pock-marked surface tells the story of its history. It's marked by over 9,000 impact craters, according to the…
A Group of Meteorites All Came From a Destroyed Planetesimal With a Magnetic Core
Before our Solar System had planets, it had planetesimals. Scientists think that most of the meteorites that have struck Earth…
Interstellar Asteroid ‘Oumuamua Had a Violent Past
According to the latest study by a team that has been observing 'Oumuamua since it was first discovered, this interstellar…
Finally, the Missing Link in Planetary Formation!
A new study by an international team of scientists may be the "missing link" in our understanding of how planets…