Planets

A possible underground ocean on Pluto could be protected by an insulating layer

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An article published in the journal “Nature Geoscience” reports the results of a study of the conditions that could allow the presence of an ocean below the dwarf planet Pluto’s surface. A team of researchers analyzed using computer simulations the possibility that under the heart-shaped area called Sputnik Planitia there’s a layer of gas hydrate of the class known as clathrates formed by water and natural gas which acts as an insulator allowing the layer below them it remains warm enough to keep water in its liquid state.

A possible earthquake detected on Mars by the InSight lander

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NASA has announced that its InSight lander detected what’s probably an earthquake on the planet Mars. What was nicknamed marsquake is a small earthquake that on Earth would be recorded with a magnitude of 2-2.5 and it’s only thanks to an instrument called SEIS designed for that purpose that it was detected on Mars on April 6, 2019. We’re at the beginning of Martian seismology therefore the data will be studied to confirm that it was indeed an earthquake and if that’s the case it will be the first one.

Tides and proton flows for the planets of the TRAPPIST-1 system

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Two articles published in “The Astrophysical Journal” describe as many researches on the possibility that at least some of the seven rocky planets of the ultra-cool dwarf star TRAPPIST-1’s system can be habitable. Two researchers from the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory examined the effects gravity of planets has on its neighbors. A team from the Center for Astrophysics (CfA) of Harvard University and Smithsonian Institution examined the effects that high-energy protons emitted by the star may have on its planets.

The first Earth-sized exoplanet identified thanks to the TESS space telescope

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An article published in “The Astrophysical Journal Letters” reports the discovery of two exoplanets in the orange star HD 21749’s system, one of which is the first Earth-sized identified thanks to NASA’s TESS space telescope and the other a Mini-Neptune. A team of researchers led by Diana Dragomir already submitted a first version of the article on the exoplanet HD 21749b, the Mini-Neptune also referred to as TOI 186.01, mentioning as candidate TOI 186.02 the rocky exoplanet now referred to as HD 21749c in the new version of the article in which it’s considered confirmed.

The Mars Rover Curiosity analyzed clay minerals in Aberlady on Mars

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NASA’s Mars Rover Curiosity drilled a clay area, called a clay-bearing unit by the mission scientists, of ​​Mount Sharp on Mars that was nicknamed Aberlady to take samples for analysis. The rock turned out to be quite friable so only the normal rotation of the drill was used, without the percussion system used on other occasions to drill much harder rocks. Clay is associated with water so the hope is that the results of the analysis will help to reconstruct the history of Mars with new information on the remote era in which there was a lake in the area.