Astronomers have long been intrigued by the makeup of the asteroid belt’s largest body. When it was first spotted in 1801, Ceres appeared dry and rocky, its surface marked by craters and dents. For ...
Across the outer solar system, some of the tiniest icy satellites are emerging as unlikely candidates for extreme internal oceans, where water may simmer or even boil beneath frozen crusts. Instead of ...
Alfredo has a PhD in Astrophysics and a Master's in Quantum Fields and Fundamental Forces from Imperial College London. Alfredo has a PhD in Astrophysics and a Master's in Quantum Fields and ...
Mars is a dry, frigid, dusty, nearly airless place. A couple of billion years ago, though, it wasn’t much different from Earth. A string of space probes have proven that the Red Planet once sported ...
Of all the celestial bodies orbiting the sun, Enceladus shines brightest. I mean this literally: This small moon of Saturn reflects nearly all the sunlight that touches its surface, because it is ...
'Ceres, we think, is therefore the most accessible icy world in the universe.' When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. The outer crust of ...
A color-enhanced view of Ceres, the nearest dwarf planet to Earth, highlights its Occator crater. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA Pluto is the most famous dwarf planet, due in ...
The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. For most of humankind’s existence, Earth was the only known ocean-draped world, seemingly unlike any other cosmic isle. But in 1979, ...
The scars on Ceres should have softened by now. That was the long-running problem. If the dwarf planet’s crust held a great deal of ice, many of its craters should have slowly sagged over geologic ...
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