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Astronomy and planetary science are the study of objects and phenomena that occur beyond the Earth’s atmosphere. This includes investigating stars and their interaction with each other and the planetary systems that orbit them.
A phenomenon that affects the magnetic fields of rotating bodies could be involved in recurring changes in the Sun’s behaviour, which are related to a periodic flipping of its field. The proposal is a fresh take on this strange effect.
The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, emphasizes the importance of conserving wild plant species, plus a wonderstruck sky-watcher spots a brilliant meteor, in the weekly dip into Nature’s archive.
Alkylsulfonic acids represent an alternative source of sulfur for the origins of life. Here the authors demonstrate, via laboratory simulation experiments, the formation of these compounds in interstellar analog ices with implications for their incorporation into asteroids such as Ryugu.
The accretion disk from a star tidally disrupted by a supermassive black hole undergoes Lense–Thirring precession with strong, quasi-periodic X-ray flux and temperature modulations.
The near-infrared spectrometer onboard JWST has detected CO2 and CO ices on 56 and 29 trans-Neptunian objects, respectively, indicating two dominant compositional types among them. These compositional differences suggest varied formation regions in the protoplanetary disk.
Simple analytic estimates and detailed numerical calculations show that the solar dynamo begins near the surface, rather than at the much-deeper tachocline.
Utilizing a synergistic dataset from three Mars orbiters, it is shown that water photolysis above the main region of cloud formation in the Martian atmosphere is the dominant source of hydrogen available for atmospheric escape on Mars.
A phenomenon that affects the magnetic fields of rotating bodies could be involved in recurring changes in the Sun’s behaviour, which are related to a periodic flipping of its field. The proposal is a fresh take on this strange effect.
The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, emphasizes the importance of conserving wild plant species, plus a wonderstruck sky-watcher spots a brilliant meteor, in the weekly dip into Nature’s archive.