Four planets locked in a perfect rhythm around a nearby star are destined to be pinballed around their solar system when their sun eventually dies, according to a study led by the University of Warwick that peers into its future.
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IMAGE: The far side of the Moon always faces away from the Earth, making communications from lunar equipment there much more challenging. Fortunately, relay communication satellites can act as a bridge. view more
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Space: Science & Technology
Because of a phenomenon called gravitational locking, the Moon always faces the Earth from the same side. This proved useful in the early lunar landing missions in the 20th century, as there was always a direct line of sight for uninterrupted radiocommunications between Earth ground stations and equipment on the Moon. However, gravitational locking makes exploring the hidden face of the moon the far side much more challenging, because signals cannot be sent directly across the Moon towards Earth.
An international group of collaborators, including scientists from NASA s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and The University of New Mexico, have discovered a new, temperate sub-Neptune sized exoplanet with a 24-day orbital period orbiting a nearby M dwarf star. The recent discovery offers exciting research opportunities thanks to the planet s substantial atmosphere, small star, and how fast the system is moving away from the Earth.
Carbon degassed from planetary mantles by volcanic activity plays an important role in the planetary surface environment. However, how the carbon content in the Earth s mantle was established is still poorly understood. Here we show that the mantle of planetary embryos may have been nearly saturated with carbon by new high-pressure experiments and pointed out that the carbon solubility of magma is very consistent with the estimated carbon contents in terrestrial and lunar mantles.