Aug 30, 2023
When we think of all the wonderfully unique things about the Earth as a planet (liquid water on the surface, life, plate tectonics), the existence of lovely granite kitchen countertops doesn’t usually make the list. But it turns out granite is uncommon elsewhere in the solar system. But there’s a big hot blob of it...
Aug 16, 2023
The Sun is showering us with far more gamma rays than anticipated according to new measurements from a Cerenkov radiation detector in Mexico. The way those gamma rays are produced is very cool. Also cool: data continue to suggest a significant problem with the so-called standard model of particle physics. Muons...
Aug 9, 2023
We take a look at two extraordinary astronomical news items in this episode. A deep dive into an astronomical survey has discovered an Earth-sized rogue planet and a Neptune-sized rogue planet. Extrapolating from those discoveries, there may be trillions of Earth-sized rogue planets roaming the galaxy. That's more than...
Aug 2, 2023
The JWST has spotted water vapor in the hot inner region of a protoplanetary disk, the same region where rocky planets like are own are expected to form. This suggests water can be incorporated into terrestrial planets during formation, without relying on comet impacts. Much, much further away, a new interpretation of...