planetary science – Quanta Magazine https://www.quantamagazine.org Illuminating science Mon, 16 Sep 2024 14:10:47 -0400 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.2 The Search for What Shook the Earth for Nine Days Straight https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-did-a-landslide-shake-the-earth-for-nine-days-20240912/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-did-a-landslide-shake-the-earth-for-nine-days-20240912/#respond Thu, 12 Sep 2024 18:00:39 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=140655 The post The Search for What Shook the Earth for Nine Days Straight first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> On September 16, 2023, the world began to rumble. A gargantuan rock-ice avalanche tumbled into the deep waters of a fjord in eastern Greenland, unleashing a megatsunami whose initial waves reached a height of 200 meters. The waves scoured the walls of the fjord before flowing into the open sea. Even for this avalanche-prone corner of Greenland, the collapse and subsequent megatsunami were shocking...

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-did-a-landslide-shake-the-earth-for-nine-days-20240912/feed/ 0 Geometers Engineer New Tools to Wrangle Spacecraft Orbits https://www.quantamagazine.org/geometers-engineer-new-tools-to-wrangle-spacecraft-orbits-20240415/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/geometers-engineer-new-tools-to-wrangle-spacecraft-orbits-20240415/#respond Mon, 15 Apr 2024 14:15:34 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=137149 The post Geometers Engineer New Tools to Wrangle Spacecraft Orbits first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> In October, a Falcon Heavy rocket is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida, carrying NASA’s Europa Clipper mission. The $5 billion mission is designed to find out if Europa, Jupiter’s fourth-largest moon, can support life. But because Europa is constantly bombarded by intense radiation created by Jupiter’s magnetic field, the Clipper spacecraft can’t orbit the moon itself. Instead...

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/geometers-engineer-new-tools-to-wrangle-spacecraft-orbits-20240415/feed/ 0 How the Ancient Art of Eclipse Prediction Became an Exact Science https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-the-ancient-art-of-eclipse-prediction-became-an-exact-science-20240405/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-the-ancient-art-of-eclipse-prediction-became-an-exact-science-20240405/#respond Fri, 05 Apr 2024 15:03:13 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=136825 The post How the Ancient Art of Eclipse Prediction Became an Exact Science first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> Solar eclipses were interpreted throughout much of history as bad news for the sovereign — an ominous sign for their personal health or that of the realm. But those fears helped fuel thousands of years of scholarship. This progress began in Mesopotamia with a hunt for periodic patterns in historical data. It has culminated in an era in which we know the interdependent future motions of solar...

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-the-ancient-art-of-eclipse-prediction-became-an-exact-science-20240405/feed/ 0 Doubts Grow About the Biosignature Approach to Alien-Hunting https://www.quantamagazine.org/doubts-grow-about-the-biosignature-approach-to-alien-hunting-20240319/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/doubts-grow-about-the-biosignature-approach-to-alien-hunting-20240319/#respond Tue, 19 Mar 2024 13:50:35 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=136372 The post Doubts Grow About the Biosignature Approach to Alien-Hunting first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> In 2020, scientists detected a gas called phosphine in the atmosphere of an Earth-size rocky planet. Knowing of no way that phosphine could be produced except through biological processes, “the scientists assert that something now alive is the only explanation for the chemical’s source,” the New York Times reported. As “biosignature gases” go, the phosphine seemed like a home run. Until it wasn’t.

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/doubts-grow-about-the-biosignature-approach-to-alien-hunting-20240319/feed/ 0 New Clues for What Will Happen When the Sun Eats the Earth https://www.quantamagazine.org/new-clues-for-what-will-happen-when-the-sun-eats-the-earth-20231220/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/new-clues-for-what-will-happen-when-the-sun-eats-the-earth-20231220/#respond Wed, 20 Dec 2023 15:20:15 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=133427 The post New Clues for What Will Happen When the Sun Eats the Earth first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> Earth’s fate rests on a coin flip. In 5 billion years, our sun will balloon into a red giant star. Whether Earth survives is an “open question,” said Melinda Soares-Furtado, an astrophysicist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Sure, Earth could be swallowed by the sun and destroyed. But in some scenarios, Earth escapes and is pushed further out into the solar system. Now...

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