Sand dunes of many shapes and sizes are common on Mars. In this example, the dunes are almost perfectly circular, which is unusual. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona.

Sand dunes of many shapes and sizes are common on Mars.

Mars is the second smallest planet in our solar system and the fourth planet from the sun. It is a dusty, cold, desert world with a very thin atmosphere. Iron oxide is prevalent in Mars’ surface resulting in its reddish color and its nickname “The Red Planet.” Mars’ name comes from the Roman god of war.

Webb space telescope’s mid-infrared capabilities allowed scientists to see past gas and dust clouds to observe previously obscured details in faraway galaxies.

A team of researchers has been able to see inside faraway spiral galaxies for the first time to study how they formed and how they change over time, thanks to the powerful capabilities of the James Webb Space Telescope.

“We’re studying 19 of our closest analogs to our own galaxy. In our own galaxy we can’t make a lot of these discoveries because we’re stuck inside it,” says Erik Rosolowsky, professor in the University of Alberta Department of Physics and co-author on a recent paper — published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

That’s some tough parenting.

Stars commonly engulf planets, but some can survive and even outlive the star.

Astronomers found compelling evidence that the water in our solar system came from interstellar space. This water around a distant protostar is quite similar to the water found in our solar system, and on Earth.

Astronomers report the discovery of two new exoplanets orbiting a bright sun-like star about 175 light years away. The newfound alien worlds, designated HIP 104,045 b and HIP 104,045 c, were classified as a Jupiter analog and a super Neptune planet, respectively. The finding was detailed in a paper published March 2 on the pre-print server arXiv.

The radial velocity (RV) method to detect an exoplanet is based on the detection of variations in the velocity of the central star, due to the changing direction of the gravitational pull from an unseen exoplanet as it orbits the star. Thanks to this technique, more than 600 exoplanets have been detected so far.

Now, a team of astronomers led by Thiago Ferreira of the University of São Paulo in Brazil, reports the detection of two new exoplanets using the RV method. They observed a solar-type star HIP 104,045 with the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) spectrograph on the 3.6m telescope of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in La Silla, Chile. The observations, conducted as part of the Solar Twin Planet Search (STPS) program, resulted in the discovery of two massive extrasolar worlds.

This could rethink our view of the world as once-habitable.

Venus has long been discussed as a former ‘ocean world’ like Mars, but a new study in PNAS shows this era may have been short lived.

If there is a social media phenomenon getting some kind of popularity, Meta will try and jump in. We have seen the company copy different kinds of formats ranging from Stories to short videos after seeing the success of other platforms. Now, the Mark Zuckerberg-led company is working on a decentralized text-based app.

Meta confirmed this development in a statement but didn’t give out details about when it plans to release the app.

“We’re exploring a standalone decentralized social network for sharing text updates. We believe there’s an opportunity for a separate space where creators and public figures can share timely updates about their interests,” a Meta spokesperson said.