Planets

The crater triplet in Noachis Terra (Image ESA/DLR/FU Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO)

0

ESA has published photos taken by its Mars Express space probe’s High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) of a crater triplet in the Noachis Terra region on planet Mars. That region gave its name to the Noachian era in which, between about 3.7 and 4.1 billion years ago, the red planet was hit by a particularly large number of meteorites, and Noachis Terra is full of craters still existing. A crater triplet with an overlap indicating three very close impacts is interesting not only as a curiosity but also for the geological history it can tell together with others from the same region.

Pigafetta Montes and Elcano Montes on Pluto and the Alps

0

An article published in the journal “Nature Communications” reports a study that offers an explanation for the origin of the snowpack existing on the highest mountains of the dwarf planet Pluto that create a sort of alpine panorama since it resembles in many ways the Earth’s Alps. A team of researchers used data collected by NASA’s New Horizons space probe to figure out that the snow is mainly composed of methane. This compound can become solid under the conditions present on Pluto and forms that mantle through a process that’s very different from that one that leads to alpine snowfall.

Radar map of the Mars area where the lake system was found (Image courtesy Sebastian Emanuel Lauro et al. Nature Astronomy, 2020)

0

An article published in the journal “Nature Astronomy” reports the discovery of new underground lakes of very salty liquid water under the planet Mars’ south pole cap. A team of researchers led by Elena Pettinelli and Sebastian Lauro, both of the Italian Roma Tre University, used data collected by ESA’s Mars Express space probe’s Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding (MARSIS) instrument to discover what form a lake system consisting of three main lakes surrounded by other smaller lakes. This confirms the discovery of a lake announced in July 2018 and offers evidence that this is not a unique case. It remains an extreme environment, so it takes some speculation to imagine life forms in those lakes, but the authors of this new research also recommend increasing the exploration of those areas to understand their potential is to host life.

Jupiter's South Pole (Image NASA-JPL/Caltech)

0

An article published in the journal “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences” reports a study on storms at the planet Jupiter’s south pole and their regular geometric pattern. A team of researchers from the University of Berkeley and Caltech used mathematical models derived from 19th-century research by Lord Kelvin based on experiments by physicist Alfred Mayer to explain why those storms concentrated in that area and why on Jupiter they’re arranged in that geometric formation.

Artist's concept of Pi Earth (Image courtesy NASA Ames/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle, Christine Daniloff, MIT)

0

An article published in “The Astronomical Journal” reports a study on the exoplanet K2-315b, nicknamed Pi Earth because its year lasts 3.14 Earth days, an approximation of the value of pi. A team of researchers from the SPECULOOS (Search for habitable Planets EClipsing ULtra-cOOl Stars) project, a network of ground-based telescopes, used them to confirm the planet’s existence by verifying data collected by NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope. Pi Earth is very close to its star so the temperature on its surface is very high even if the star is very small and relatively cold. Any life forms should be analogous to terrestrial extremophiles. It may be lifeless but it is an interesting candidate for studying its atmosphere.