Planets

A fragment of Muonionalusta meteorite

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An article published in the journal “Nature Astronomy” reports an analysis of the isotopic composition of six groups of iron meteorites, and the results offer evidence that some of the materials that formed the planet Earth came from red giant stars. Mattias Ek of the University of Bristol, Alison C. Hunt, Maria Lugaro and Maria Schönbächler examined in particular the isotopic composition of palladium finding that some dust has a composition that can be produced only by nuclear reactions that take place in red giants’ inner regions. This offers an explanation of the greater presence of that type of dust on Earth than on Mars or in asteroids.

Remains of glaciers that sculpted the territory of Deuteronilus Mensae on Mars

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ESA has published new images of the region of the planet Mars called Deuteronilus Mensae captured by its Mars Express space probe’s High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) instrument that show a territory sculpted by the movements of glaciers that created formations such as those known as mesas. That’s a particularly interesting region because already in the last decade traces of ice still there were discovered. In the past, there was perhaps a regional ice cap in that area of ​​which Deuteronilus Mensae represents the remains.

The report of Jupiter's Great Red Spot demise might be greatly exaggerated

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At the 72nd Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics, held in recent days in Seattle, Philip Marcus of the University of California, Berkeley, presented a study on Jupiter’s Great Red Spot. According to recent research, it’s shrinking but according to this new study based on photos and computer simulations that’s actually an impression due to clouds covering a part of it.

An investigation on multiple star systems shows that many of them host planets

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An article published in the journal “Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society” reports an analysis of data collected by ESA’s Gaia space probe in search for exoplanets in multiple systems. Dr. Markus Mugrauer of the University of Jena, Germany, examined over 1,300 stars hosting exoplanets in a radius of about 1,600 light years from Earth to determine which of them had one or even more companions. The result is that over 200 of them are multiple systems, in one case even a quadruple one, in which the companions are above all red dwarfs but in eight cases there’s a white dwarf as a companion. This is the confirmation that multiple systems with exoplanets are not an exception and that exoplanets can survive the death of one of the stars.

Oxygen spikes in Mars atmosphere are a new mystery

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An article published in the “Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets” reports an analysis of the composition of the atmosphere of the planet Mars based on data collected by NASA’s Mars Rover Curiosity. A team of researchers led by Melissa Trainer of NASA’s Goddard Space Center confirmed the presence of various gases already known with seasonal variations due to carbon dioxide’s freezing and evaporation. A surprise came from the detection of a remarkable growth of oxygen in spring and its drop back to the previous levels in fall. This is a new mystery added to that of the presence of methane on the red planet.