A lost planetary embryo, potentially as large as the moon or Mars, shattered 4.5 billion years ago after colliding with another celestial body. Scientists confirmed the existence of this protoplanet by analyzing the Northwest Africa (NWA) 12774 angrite meteorite, which contains high-pressure mineral signatures inconsistent with small asteroids. According to research published in Earth and … Read more
New remote sensing data from the OSIRIS-REx mission reveals significant mineralogical diversity across the surface of asteroid (101955) Bennu at scales of two to ten meters. According to a study currently under review at JGR: Planets, researchers identified measurable spectral heterogeneity at all four candidate sampling sites—Nightingale, Osprey, Sandpiper, and Kingfisher—providing a critical baseline for … Read more
Unmasking the Cosmic Mystery: How HD 142527 is Changing Our View of Planet Formation For years, astronomers have looked at the star system HD 142527 and seen a chaotic, asymmetrical dance of dust and gas. But new data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) is turning our understanding of this “planet nursery” on its … Read more