Category Astronomy/Space

Jupiter and Io. Tidal heating is responsible for driving the most volcanically active body in our solar system, Jupiter’s moon Io. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute/Goddard Space Flight Center

A planet’s magnetic field emanates from its core and is thought to deflect the charged particles of the stellar wind, protecting the atmosphere from being lost to space. Magnetic fields, born from the cooling of a planet’s interior, could also protect life on the surface from harmful radiation, as Earth’s magnetic field protects us.

Low-mass stars are among the most common in the universe...

Dark, narrow streaks on Martian slopes such as these at Hale Crater are inferred to be formed by seasonal flow of water on contemporary Mars. The streaks are roughly the length of a football field. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona

Perchlorate salts, which may help on our JourneyToMars! Perchlorate absorbs water from the air.

Using an imaging spectrometer on MRO, NASA found hydrated minerals on slopes where mysterious streaks are seen on Mars. One thing that researchers noticed was that the darkish streaks appear to ebb and flow over time. During warm seasons, they darken and then fade in cooler seasons. When discovered in 2010, these downhill flows known as recurring slope lineae (RSL) were thought to be related to liquid water...

This image depicts filling the Cytospace experiment unit. Credit: Kayser Italia

The Cell Shape and Expression, or Cytospace, investigation examined how physical forces – incl shear stress, stiffness, surface tension, and gravity – change the relationships among these proteins, interfering with cell architecture and changing the geometric form, or shape, of the cell.

“These cytoskeleton modifications enhance reframing of the cell shape and lead to significant changes in cell function and behavior,” explains Marco Vukich, Ph.D., with Kayser Italia in Italy. Shear stress in particular is known to cause several changes that can result in cell death and that affect cell division and permeability in addition to gene expression.

In microgravity, this series of events – a change in cytoskeleton st...

DFMS mass spectra in the m/z ranges of 36 and 38. The spectra demonstrate the clear identification of the two isotopes 36Ar and 38Ar and of the interfering molecules. The exact m/z locations are given in the text. The spacecraft background spectra were obtained before the cometary signal became apparent (2 August 2014, heliocentric distance of 3.6 AU, almost 800 km from the nucleus).

This measurement adds to the debate about the role of comets in delivering various “ingredients,” such as water, to Earth. Comets are considered to be representative of icy planetesimals that may have contributed a significant fraction of the volatiles to planets in the very early solar system...