Planetary science articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Riparian vegetation densities critically mediate the morphodynamics of meandering rivers: plants slow the rate at which channels move laterally and reinforce the key, first-order control that curvature exerts on meander planform evolution.

    • Alvise Finotello
    • , Alessandro Ielpi
    •  & Andrea D’Alpaos
  • Article
    | Open Access

    In this study, the authors trace lateral magma movement in a ~ 3700 km long fracture on Venus. This Great Dyke of Atla Regio is the longest so-far traced on Venus (and in the solar system) and belongs to a giant radiating dyke swarm of the Ozza Mons volcano of the Atla Regio plume.

    • H. El Bilali
    •  & R. E. Ernst
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Speleothems from the Savanna region in Brazil documents the occurrence of an unprecedented long-term drought driven by anthropogenic forcing. Staring in the 1970´s the current drought is the most severe that has struck the region in the past 700 years.

    • Nicolas Misailidis Stríkis
    • , Plácido Fabrício Silva Melo Buarque
    •  & Valdir Felipe Novello
  • Article
    | Open Access

    In face-to-face double subduction, the development of subduction in the younger system restrains subduction in the older system and results in plate motion reorganisation, according to geodynamic modelling.

    • Kuidi Zhang
    • , Jie Liao
    •  & Taras Gerya
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Jets have been found in Earth’s magnetosheath for two decades and, more recently, also in Mars. Yet, their universal existence in planetary magnetosheath remains an open question. Here, authors report the presence of anti-sunward and sunward jets at Jupiter and compare them to Earth and Mars.

    • Yufei Zhou
    • , Savvas Raptis
    •  & Lan Ma
  • Article
    | Open Access

    14% of the world’s coastlines are muddy and the majority of them are eroding at rates exceeding 1 m per year over the last three decades, according to an automated classification method that identifies global coastlines.

    • Romy Hulskamp
    • , Arjen Luijendijk
    •  & Stefan Aarninkhof
  • Article
    | Open Access

    On its way to Mercury, BepiColombo spacecraft made two flybys of Venus. Here, the authors show spectrally resolved measurements of Venus’ atmosphere during BepiColombo’s second flyby and reveal that Venusian atmosphere has been stable since 1980s.

    • Jörn Helbert
    • , Rainer Haus
    •  & Harald Hiesinger
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Mesospheric ghosts are rare, faint, greenish transient luminous events. Here, the authors show metallic emissions revealed by the spectrum of a mesospheric ghost.

    • María Passas-Varo
    • , Oscar Van der Velde
    •  & Joan Montanyà
  • Article
    | Open Access

    At high pressures, water and ammonia are known to exhibit superionic states. Here it is shown that many planetary ices (H-C-N-O compounds) exhibit a superionic state, and in some cases, a doubly superionic state, in which multiple elements diffuse simultaneously.

    • Kyla de Villa
    • , Felipe González-Cataldo
    •  & Burkhard Militzer
  • Comment
    | Open Access

    The exploration of our solar system is being radically changed since the beginning of operations of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) in mid 2022. JWST’s extraordinary sensitivity and instrumentation allow for sensitive searches for the building blocks of life and to test for habitability, also enabling new discoveries on small bodies to giant planets across our solar system and beyond.

    • G. L. Villanueva
    •  & S. N. Milam
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Atomic oxygen is important for the photochemistry and energy balance of Venus’s atmosphere, but it was not directly observed on the dayside of Venus. Here, the authors show direct detection of atomic oxygen on the both dayside and nightside of Venus by measuring its ground-state transition at 4.74 THz.

    • Heinz-Wilhelm Hübers
    • , Heiko Richter
    •  & Helmut Wiesemeyer
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Channel networks are key to coastal wetland functioning. Here, the authors show how vegetation enhances network branching, and hypothesize that this may enhance the storm surge buffering capacity of wetlands and their resilience under sea-level rise.

    • Roeland C. van de Vijsel
    • , Jim van Belzen
    •  & Johan van de Koppel
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Barrier islands and backbarrier saltmarshes are particularly threatened by sea level rise. Here, the authors show how reduction in intertidal areas create negative feedback, shifting transport of coarse sediment through the inlet from net export to net import.

    • Kevin C. Hanegan
    • , Duncan M. FitzGerald
    •  & Zoe J. Hughes
  • Article
    | Open Access

    The structure of GeO2 melt has been debated for decades due to several unexplained bands present in the GeO2 melt Raman spectra. Here authors present a promising way to analyse melt structures from Raman spectra and they demonstrate threefold coordinated germanium is formed in the GeO2 melt.

    • Songming Wan
    • , Shujie Zhang
    •  & Jinglin You
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Mars lacks a global intrinsic magnetic field. Here, the authors show wedge-like dispersion structures of Hydrogen ions exhibiting butterfly-shaped distributions, which was previously found only in intrinsic magnetospheres.

    • Chi Zhang
    • , Hans Nilsson
    •  & Stas Barabash
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Food production, especially of animal products, is a major source of air pollutants. Here, the authors quantify the impacts dietary changes towards more plant-based diets could have for air quality, labour productivity, and human health.

    • Marco Springmann
    • , Rita Van Dingenen
    •  & Adrian Leip
  • Article
    | Open Access

    The homogeneity of Aluminium-26 (Al-26) isotope distribution in the accreting solar nebula is debated. Here, the authors show that the age determination of meteorite Erg Chech 002, compared with other igneous meteorites, indicates that Al-26 was heterogeneously distributed in the early Solar System.

    • Evgenii Krestianinov
    • , Yuri Amelin
    •  & Tommaso Di Rocco
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Solid helium is predicted to become a metal at extraordinarily high pressures of 25 TPa. Here, the authors predict that helium becomes an excitonic insulator just below the metallization pressure, and a superconductor just above the metallization pressure.

    • Cong Liu
    • , Ion Errea
    •  & Claudio Cazorla
  • Article
    | Open Access

    BepiColombo mission had its first Mercury flyby on 1 October 2021. Here, the authors show plasma measurements taken during this flyby, which reveals that electron injections and subsequent energy-dependent drift is a universal mechanism generating aurorae in the planetary magnetospheres.

    • Sae Aizawa
    • , Yuki Harada
    •  & Go Murakami
  • Article
    | Open Access

    A new age map of the rift valley at an ultraslow-spreading ridge reveals that 50% of the lava flows are <25,000 years old. The study documents a continuous volcanic surface renewal with eruptions occurring throughout the width of the rift valley.

    • H. H. Stubseid
    • , A. Bjerga
    •  & R. B. Pedersen
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Micrometre scale simulation of the trajectory of sunlight as it reaches the snowpack shows what snow looks like from the photon’s perspective, providing a more universal representation of snow in optical models.

    • Alvaro Robledano
    • , Ghislain Picard
    •  & Quentin Libois
  • Article
    | Open Access

    This study investigates the role of water in the lower-most stratosphere, affecting dynamics of the stratosphere and troposphere, and shows that common water vapor transport schemes can cause biases, present in nearly all modern climate models.

    • Edward Charlesworth
    • , Felix Plöger
    •  & Martin Riese
  • Article
    | Open Access

    This work estimates the eruption volume of the young Chang’e-5 lunar samples using diffusion chronology and thermodynamic simulations, and finds that there was an increase in volcanic eruption flux about 2.0 billion years ago.

    • Heng-Ci Tian
    • , Chi Zhang
    •  & Fuyuan Wu
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Excess of l-amino acids in meteorites suggests an extraterrestrial origin of biomolecular homochirality, which may stem from chiral light-matter interactions. Here the authors support this hypothesis with asymmetric photolysis experiments on racemic isovaline films, showing that circularly polarized starlight can produce l-enantiomeric excesses that can be amplified during parent bodies’ alteration.

    • Jana Bocková
    • , Nykola C. Jones
    •  & Cornelia Meinert
  • Comment
    | Open Access

    The samples returned from near-Earth asteroid (162173) Ryugu provide a pristine record of the 4.6 billion years since the birth of the Solar System. The Hayabusa2 initial analysis team has integrated a range of analytical techniques to investigate Ryugu’s organic chemistry. Here, we highlight their latest findings, the potential questions which may be answered, and provide an overview of new prospects in the decade to come.

    • Yasuhiro Oba
    • , Yoshinori Takano
    •  & Hiroshi Naraoka
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Is phosphorous a limiting factor for life on ocean worlds (e.g. Europa and Enceladus)? Calculated dissolved phosphate concentrations from a wide range of possible water-rock reactions suggest cell populations larger than those observed in Earth’s deep oceans could be supported.

    • Noah G. Randolph-Flagg
    • , Tucker Ely
    •  & Tori M. Hoehler
  • Article
    | Open Access

    This study shows that the total energy loss of gravity currents has a non-linear dependence on the work required to keep sediment in suspension, highlighting the importance of large-scale mixing for the particulate transport of gravity currents.

    • Sojiro Fukuda
    • , Marijke G. W. de Vet
    •  & Robert M. Dorrell
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Low stellar ultraviolet (UV) radiation leads to low ozone abundances, therefore, less planetary UV protection. Here, the authors show that planets in the habitable zones of metal-poor stars, despite their higher UV radiation than metal-rich stars, are the best targets for search for life.

    • Anna V. Shapiro
    • , Christoph Brühl
    •  & Jos Lelieveld
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here the authors present a global scale classification of river channel belt extents as a resource for improved ecosystem accounting and river behavior analysis. Moreover, the methods show advances in pattern recognition to define new global landform products.

    • Björn Nyberg
    • , Gijs Henstra
    •  & Juha Ahokas
  • Comment
    | Open Access

    A long-standing issue in astrobiology is whether planets orbiting the most abundant type of stars, M-dwarfs, can support liquid water and eventually life. A new study shows that subglacial melting may provide an answer, significantly extending the habitability region, in particular around M-dwarf stars, which are also the most promising for biosignature detection with the present and near-future technology.

    • Amri Wandel
  • Comment
    | Open Access

    The early Hadean eon (>4Ga) may have had a periodically ice-covered global ocean and limited subaerial landmass, and this could have resulted in infrequent lightning occurrence. This infrequency of lightning may have limited the synthesis of prebiotic compounds necessary for life’s origins. Here I present a hypothesis that lightning associated with volcanic island eruptions created focal points for the generation of prebiotic ingredients and ultimately the origin of life.

    • Jeffrey L. Bada
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Observations are reported of HClO3 and HClO4 in the atmosphere and their widespread occurrence over the pan-Arctic during spring, providing further insights into atmospheric chlorine cycling in the polar environment.

    • Yee Jun Tham
    • , Nina Sarnela
    •  & Alfonso Saiz-Lopez