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exoplanets

Colorful opalized shell of a fossil ammonite.
geology

Life Helps Make Almost Half of Earth’s Minerals

By Joanna Thompson
July 1, 2022
Read Later

A new origins-based system for classifying minerals reveals the huge geochemical imprint that life has left on Earth. It could help us identify other worlds with life too.

an illustration of various objects (a chair, a rocket, a cell phone, etc.) as well as biological objects such as a DNA double-helix and microbe, all against a lime green background
The Joy of Why

What Is Life?

By Steven Strogatz
June 15, 2022
Read Later

Without a good definition of life, how do we look for it on alien planets? Steven Strogatz speaks with Robert Hazen, a mineralogist and astrobiologist, and Sheref Mansy, a chemist, to learn more.

An array of images of protoplanetary disks with bright suns at the centers surrounded by rings, arcs, filaments and spirals.]
astronomy

Astronomers Reimagine the Making of the Planets

By Rebecca Boyle
June 9, 2022
Read Later

Observations of faraway planets have forced a near-total rewrite of the story of how our solar system came to be.

climate science

Solving the Faint-Sun Paradox

By Jonathan O'Callaghan
January 27, 2022
Read Later

We might have a past faint sun to owe for life’s existence. This has consequences for the possibility of life outside Earth.

Collage illustration of the JWST
astrophysics

The Webb Space Telescope Will Rewrite Cosmic History. If It Works.

By Natalie Wolchover
December 3, 2021
Read Later

The James Webb Space Telescope has the potential to rewrite the history of the cosmos and reshape humanity’s position within it. But first, a lot of things have to work just right.

planetary science

Researchers Revise Recipe for Building a Rocky Planet Like Earth

By Jonathan O'Callaghan
November 3, 2021
Read Later

Over the past decade, researchers have completely rewritten the story of how gas giants such as Jupiter and Saturn form. They’re now debating whether the same process might hold for Earth.

Q&A

The Astronomer Who’s About to See the Skies of Other Earths

By Thomas Lewton
October 12, 2021
Read Later

After the ultra-powerful James Webb Space Telescope launches later this year, Laura Kreidberg will lead two efforts to check the weather on rocky planets orbiting other stars.

The ringed planet Saturn showing its aurora in green.
planetary science

Gas Giants’ Energy Crisis Solved After 50 Years

By Robin George Andrews
June 22, 2021
Read Later

Jupiter and Saturn should be freezing cold. Instead, they’re hot. Researchers now know why.

Q&A

The Materials Scientist Who Studies the Innards of Exoplanets

By Adam Mann
June 15, 2021
Read Later

Federica Coppari uses the world’s most powerful laser to recreate the cores of distant worlds.


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