Planets

Mars basin that could host a lake (Image NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)

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An article published in the “Journal of Geophysical Research – Planets” report geological evidence that on planet Mars in ancient times there was a system of interconnected underground lakes and five of them could contain minerals essential for life. A team of researchers used data collected by ESA’s Mars Express space probe to investigate what are now basins, deep craters in the red planet’s northern hemisphere, finding evidence that they once housed lakes.

Traces of an ancient river system on Mars

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ESA has published some images of an ancient system of trenches and river valleys near a large crater with a diameter of over 450 kilometers north of the great Hellas Planitia basin on the planet Mars obtained thanks to the Mars Express space probe’s High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC). The signs of water flow are mixed with the craters caused by impacts occurred between 3.5 and 4 billion years ago in that area of ​​the Martian southern hemisphere showing the different processes that were taking place when the red planet was young and much more similar to the Earth.

Supernovae and water in rocky planets

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An article published in the journal “Nature Astronomy” reports the results of a series of computer simulations conducted to better understand the mechanisms of rocky planets formation. A team of researchers concluded that there are probably two types of planetary systems: those similar to the solar system, with planets containing relatively little water, and those in which there are above all the so-called ocean planets or waterworlds. The difference may have been caused by the presence of a massive star nearby that ejected radioactive materials that have at least partially dried out the planets. This might have led to the emergence of a temperate climate on Earth.

The Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity's shadow (Image NASA/JPL-Caltech)

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NASA announced the end of the existing possibilities to re-establish contacts with its Mars Rover Opportunity and consequently declared the end of its mission. Oppy, as it’s affectionately called, interrupted communications after June 10, 2018 following the global storm that covered the planet Mars with a blanket of dust that prevented it from obtaining energy from its solar panels. This extraordinary mission ends in this sad way because caused by an extrnal cause after over 15 Earth’s years in which it collected a wealth of information on Mars.

Artist's concept of protoplanet impact (Image Nasa/JPL-Caltech modified)

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An article published in the journal “Nature Astronomy” describes a study about two super-Earths in the Kepler-107 star system that have similar size but very different densities that indicate a very different chemical composition. A team of researchers led by Aldo Bonomo of the Italian National Institute of Astrophysics (INAF) in Turin used the HARPS-N spectrograph installed on the Galileo National Telescope in the Canary Islands to examine the planets Kepler-107b and Kepler-107c and conclude that probably the remarkable differences between them are due to a primordial impact.