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Simple collapse may build cosmic snowman worlds
New York (SDX) Feb 23, 2026 Astronomers have puzzled over why many icy worlds in the distant Kuiper Belt look like snowmen, with two round lobes joined together. New work from Michigan State University points to a surprisingly simple explanation: these so called contact binaries can form directly through gravitational collapse. Far beyond Neptune, the Kuiper Belt holds icy, largely untouched planetesimals that preserve conditions from the dawn of the solar system. Observations suggest that roughly one in ten of these buildin ... read more |
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Jupiter size refined by new radio mappingParis, France (SPX) Feb 05, 2026 For more than half a century, planetary scientists relied on a handful of spacecraft flybys to pin down Jupiter's size and shape. Now, an international team led by the Weizmann Institute of Science ... more 
Europa ice delamination may deliver nutrients to hidden oceanLos Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 21, 2026 A new geophysics study proposes a mechanism that could move life-sustaining nutrients from the battered surface of Europa down into its buried global ocean, improving the odds that the Jovian moon c ... more 
Birth conditions fixed water contrast on Jupiters moonsLos Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 21, 2026 While Io, the most volcanically active moon in the solar system, appears completely dry and devoid of water ice, its neighbor Europa is thought to harbor a vast global ocean of liquid water beneath ... more 
Polar weather on Jupiter and Saturn hints at the planets' interior detailsBoston MA (SPX) Jan 21, 2026 Over the years, passing spacecraft have observed mystifying weather patterns at the poles of Jupiter and Saturn. The two planets host very different types of polar vortices, which are huge atmospher ... more |
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Study links Europa's quiet seafloor to hidden potential for lifeLos Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 21, 2026 The giant planet Jupiter has nearly 100 known moons, but none has captured scientific attention quite like Europa, which likely hides a global salty ocean beneath an icy crust that may contain twice ... more 
Computer models let scientists peer into the mystery beneath Jupiter's cloudsChicago IL (SPX) Jan 19, 2026 Spectacular clouds swirl across the surface of Jupiter. These clouds contain water, just like Earth's, but are much denser on the gas giant--so thick that no spacecraft has been able to measure exac ... more 
Jupiter's moon Europa has a seafloor that may be quiet and lifelessSt. Louis MO (SPX) Jan 06, 2026 The giant planet Jupiter has nearly 100 known moons, yet none have captured the interest and imagination of astronomers and space scientists quite like Europa, an ice-shrouded world that is thought ... more 
Uranus and Neptune may be rock rich worldsZurich, Switzerland (SPX) Dec 11, 2025 The Solar System is often divided into four inner rocky planets, two gas giants, and two ice giants thought to be dominated by water and other volatiles, but new work from the University of Zurich s ... more 
SwRI links Uranus radiation belt mystery to solar storm driven wavesLos Angeles CA (SPX) Dec 08, 2025 SwRI scientists report that a reanalysis of Voyager 2 measurements suggests a powerful solar storm may explain why Uranus hosts an electron radiation belt far more intense than expected. They propos ... more |
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Looking inside icy moonsDavis, CA (SPX) Dec 01, 2025 The outer planets of the Solar System are swarmed by ice-wrapped moons. Some of these, such as Saturn's moon Enceladus, are known to have oceans of liquid water between the ice shell and the rocky c ... more 
Saturn moon mission planning shifts to flower constellation theoryTokyo, Japan (SPX) Nov 12, 2025 Researchers have developed a satellite constellation approach designed for exploration around Titan, Saturn's largest moon. The framework, known as the 2D Necklace Flower Constellation, prioritizes ... more 
Could these wacky warm Jupiters help astronomers solve the planet formation puzzle?Los Angeles CA (SPX) Oct 15, 2025 What do you do when you have an unanticipated astronomical phenomenon, a dataset made of planets thousands of light-years away and theoretical models that fail to explain what exactly you're looking ... more 
Out-of-this-world ice geysers on Saturn's EnceladusAustin TX (SPX) Oct 01, 2025 In the 17th century, astronomers Christiaan Huygens and Giovanni Cassini trained their telescopes on Saturn and uncovered a startling truth: the planet's luminous bands were not solid appendages, bu ... more 
3 Questions: How a new mission to Uranus could be just around the cornerBoston MA (SPX) Oct 01, 2025 The successful test of SpaceX's Starship launch vehicle, following a series of engineering challenges and failed launches, has reignited excitement over the possibilities this massive rocket may unl ... more |
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A New Model of Water in Jupiter's Atmosphere
Pasadena CA (SPX) Oct 01, 2025 Caltech researchers have developed a new simulation of the hydrological cycle on Jupiter, modeling how water vapor condenses into clouds and falls as rain throughout the giant planet's swirled, turbulent atmosphere. The research shows that Jupiter's water is not uniformly distributed, giving missions like NASA's Juno orbiter important guidance about where to look for water on the planet. Jupiter was considered the first planet in our solar system to form, and its massive gravitational influence sh ... read more 
Evidence of a past, deep ocean on Uranian moon, ArielTucson AZ (SPX) Sep 30, 2025 Growing evidence suggests that a subsurface ocean lurks beneath the icy surface of Uranus' moon Ariel, but new research, published in Icarus, characterizes the possible evolution of this ocean, and ... more |
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NASA Study: Celestial 'Accident' Sheds Light on Jupiter, Saturn RiddlePasadena CA (JPL) Sep 17, 2025 An unusual cosmic object is helping scientists better understand the chemistry hidden deep in Jupiter and Saturn's atmospheres - and potentially those of exoplanets. Why has silicon, one of the most ... more 
Methane gas revealed on dwarf planet Makemake by JWST observationsLos Angeles CA (SPX) Sep 11, 2025 A Southwest Research Institute-led research team has made the first detection of gas on Makemake, a distant dwarf planet in the outer Solar System, using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Th ... more 
Fresh twist to mystery of Jupiter's coreLondon, UK (SPX) Aug 22, 2025 The mystery at Jupiter's heart has taken a fresh twist - as new research suggests a giant impact may not have been responsible for the formation of its core. ... more 
Jupiter birth dated through ancient molten rock droplets in meteoritesNagoya, Japan (SPX) Aug 25, 2025 Researchers from Nagoya University and the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) have determined the timing of Jupiter's formation by studying tiny molten rock spheres known as chondrul ... more 
New Horizons begins record hibernation in Kuiper BeltLos Angeles CA (SPX) Aug 22, 2025 At 4:12 a.m. EDT on Aug. 7, mission controllers at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory confirmed that New Horizons had safely entered hibernation mode. The spacecraft, operating more than 5.7 b ... more |
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