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Our Planetary Twin Evidence That Mars Was Once Earthlike

Mars and Earth share fundamental planetary characteristics. Both are terrestrial planets with a central core, a rocky mantle, and a solid crust. Furthermore, the length of a Martian day, called a "sol ...
Astronomy

Planets 101: What they are and how they form

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) defines a planet as a celestial body orbiting the Sun, possessing sufficient mass for a nearly spherical shape, and having cleared its orbital neighborhood ...
Science Daily

A carbon-lite atmosphere could be a sign of water and life on other terrestrial planets

Best chance of finding liquid water, and even life on other planets, is to look for the absence of carbon dioxide in their atmospheres. Scientists at MIT, the University of Birmingham, and elsewhere ...
Forbes

Earth-Like Planets Suddenly More Likely After Webb Telescope Discovery

Artistic concept of the PDS 70 disk. JWST observations detected water in the inner disk, where normally terrestrial planets form. Two gas giant planets carved a wide gap in the disk made of gas and ...
Astronomy

Ask Astro: Why do the giant planets spin faster than the terrestrial planets?

The rotation rates of giant planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune) are significantly faster than those of terrestrial planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars). Determining the rotation rates of giant ...