Granites are nearly absent in the Solar System outside of Earth. Achieving granitic compositions in magmatic systems requires multi-stage melting and fractionation, which also increases the concentration of radiogenic elements1. Abundant water and plate tectonics facilitate these processes on Earth, aiding in remelting. Although these drivers are absent on the Moon, small granite samples have been found, but details of their origin and the scale of systems they represent are unknown2. Here we report microwave-wavelength measurements of an anomalously hot geothermal source that is best explained by the presence of an approximately 50-kilometre-diameter granitic system below the thorium-rich farside feature known as Compton–Belkovich. Passive microwave radiometry is sensitive to the integrated thermal gradient to several wavelengths depth. The 3–37-gigahertz antenna temperatures of the Chang’e-1 and Chang’e-2 microwave instruments allow us to measure a peak heat f
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This Stunning Animation Shows Why Saturn s Rings Are Like a Mini Solar System
MORGAN MCFALL-JOHNSEN, BUSINESS INSIDER
5 APRIL 2021
If star-hopping aliens ever visited our solar system, Saturn is probably the planet they d remember.
The seven giant rings circling its equator make Saturn the most distinct planet orbiting the Sun. It may not be obvious in images of the hula-hoop planet, but the ice and rock chunks that make up those rings are circling Saturn at rates nearly 70 times the speed of sound. What s more, each ring is moving at its own pace.
In a way, the ring system is like a mini solar system, James O Donoghue, a planetary scientist at Japan s space agency, JAXA, told Insider.