Topic: Pamela Gay
Flood of Mars Science from Lunar and Planetary Science Conference

Flood of Mars Science from Lunar and Planetary Science Conference

by | Mar 24, 2025 |

Artist's depiction of MARS missions (Image credit: NASA) During the week of March 10, the Planetary Science community gathered in The Woodlands, Texas, a suburb of Houston - and also in Zoom - as we watched dozens and dozens of presentations on everything from tomorrow’s planned missions to today’s latest research results. I was one of the many folks on Zoom, so I was missing the between-sessions gossip, but I can bring you the science. And since the panels are all still up for attendees to rewatch to their hearts’ delight, this may be a multi-week review of what all I have learned and will...

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Dark “Stars” or galaxies?

Dark “Stars” or galaxies?

by | Aug 2, 2023 |

JWST initially identified these three objects (JADES-GS-z13-0, JADES-GS-z12-0 and JADES-GS-z11-0) as galaxies in December 2022. Now a team suggests they might be “dark stars,” theoretical objects powered by particles of dark matter annihilating. Credit: NASA/ESA We...

(Big-)Moonless worlds have unstable tilts

(Big-)Moonless worlds have unstable tilts

by | Aug 1, 2023 |

Modern-day Mars experiences cyclical changes in climate and, consequently, ice distribution. Unlike Earth, the obliquity (or tilt) of Mars changes substantially on timescales of hundreds of thousands to millions of years. At present day obliquity of about 25-degree...

Perseverance collects a River of Science

Perseverance collects a River of Science

by | Jul 31, 2023 |

Jezero Crater as Seen by ESA's Mars Express Orbiter: This image shows the remains of an ancient delta in Mars' Jezero Crater, which NASA's Perseverance Mars rover will explore for signs of fossilized microbial life. Credit: NASA The remnants of ancient dunes aren’t...

How Rivers Flow: Here, Mars & Titan

How Rivers Flow: Here, Mars & Titan

by | Jul 30, 2023 |

This false-color image shows Titan’s second-largest body of liquid, Ligeia Mare, in the moon’s northern hemisphere. Scientists think that rivers flowing into large bodies of liquids like this one should form deltas. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASI/Cornell New research...

Found: Stars blowing donuts in early universe

Found: Stars blowing donuts in early universe

by | Jul 22, 2023 |

Left: Dust is shown in red, oxygen in green, and starlight (from HST) in blue. Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), Y. Tamura et al., NASA/ESA HST). right: ALMA shows just dust emissions, including a vertically elongated elliptical cavity- a possible super bubble. Credit:...

Found: Galaxies lining up in early universe

Found: Galaxies lining up in early universe

by | Jul 21, 2023 |

This deep galaxy field from Webb's Near-Infrared Camera shows an arrangement of 10 distant galaxies (white circles) in a diagonal. NASA, ESA, CSA, Feige Wang/University of Arizona and Joseph DePasquale/STScI Currently, a lot of the research we see coming from JWST is...

Found: Time slows with distance

Found: Time slows with distance

by | Jul 20, 2023 |

Before we go to break, I want to highlight one more piece of news. In a new paper in the journal Nature Astronomy, researchers Geraint Lewis and Brendon Brewer show evidence for time appearing to tick slower in the early universe. According to relativity, as our...

Yes (maybe) 2 planets can share an orbit

Yes (maybe) 2 planets can share an orbit

by | Jul 19, 2023 |

A planet and its Trojan orbiting a star in the PDS 70 system (annotated) Credit: ALMA A whole fair amount of astronomy consists of theorists coming up with mathematically valid ideas of what is possible and then everyone debating if the universe would actually do...