[NASA] Although gullies are most common in the middle latitudes of Mars, they are also found in equatorial regions. This image shows a 3-kilometer-wide impact crater with gullies all along […]
Icy Worlds
![[LEFT] Evolution of the fiducial full 2D simulation. The simulation has run for ∼ 4 Myr; line opacity increases with time in intervals of 0.4 Myr. The top row shows the surface densities of dust (ice included), ice and vapour, whilst the second row shows the mid-plane temperature. The small noncontinuous deviations in the surface density appear due to integration over the tightly-constrained, discontinuous vertical structure of the ice. [RIGHT] Spatial distributions of CO ice and vapour density in the full 2D fiducial simulation. Temperature contours (in K) are over-plotted for reference. -- astro-ph.EP](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/CO-snow-lines.png?resize=1200%2C720&ssl=1)
Posted inAstrochemistry
CO Snow Lines Are Stabilised By The Vertical Transport Of Volatiles
[astro-ph.EP] Volatile evolution in protoplanetary discs determines the compositional evolution of forming planets. Below their sublimation temperatures, volatiles freeze out from the vapour phase onto dust grains in the disc […]
![[TOP] Example observations of (2060) Chiron for survey/telescopes (left) ATLAS, (middle) ZTF, and (right) LCO/LOOK. [BOTTOM] Example observations of 103P/Hartley 2 for survey/telescopes (left) ATLAS, (middle) ZTF, and (right) LCO/LOOK. -- astro-ph.EP](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Multi-year.png?resize=1200%2C720&ssl=1)
Posted inComets and Asteroids
Multi-year Ground-Based Survey Photometry of Active Comet 103P/Hartley 2 and Centaur (2060) Chiron: A Tale of Two Comets in the Pre-LSST Era
[astro-ph.EP] Comets and Centaurs trace the evolution of trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) into the inner solar system.
Posted inAstrochemistry
Theoretical Determination Of The Binding Energies Of Methanol And Related Species Onto Amorphous Solid Water Ice
[astro-ph.GA] The formation and survival of complex organic molecules (COMs) in cold interstellar environments depends on their interactions with icy dust grain surfaces.
Posted inPluto
Evidence For Possible N2 Basal Flow Beneath Pluto Northern Sputnik Planitia
[astro-ph.EP] Sputnik Planitia (SP) on Pluto is a large, predominantly N2 ice-filled basin with a surface area of one million square kilometers; it is among the most spectacular surface features […]
Posted inMars
Fifty Years after Viking: The Promise of Solar System Microbiology and Microbial Ecology
[Astrobiology via PubMed] The ambiguity of the Viking lander life-detection experiments left microbiology and microbial ecology out of space missions for 50 years. However, this was largely because the scientific […]
Posted inAstrochemistry
Implications Of Self-consistent H2O Ice Optical Constants On Radiative Transfer Models Of Disks
[astro-ph.EP] Interstellar water (H2O) ice exhibits significantly varied profiles over its spectral features with temperature and thermal history.
Posted inUncategorized
Long-Period Comets’ Orbits Reflect Close Passage by Star HD 7977
The Gaia mission has allowed researchers to understand the motions of stars like never before, even revealing possible interactions between our Solar System and nearby stars.
Posted inUncategorized
A Look At Eight Outbursts Of Comet 7P/Pons-Winnecke
Cometary outbursts may be used as a means to infer the physical processes occurring on cometary nuclei. To that end, we studied eight outbursts of comet 7P/Pons-Winnecke identified between 2021 […]
Posted inAstrogeology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Icy Worlds, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
Parameterizing Slantwise Convection In Icy Moon Oceans
Convection in icy moon oceans is strongly influenced by rotation, organizing into slantwise columnar structures aligned with the planetary rotation axis. They generate significant meridional heat transport, which can affect […]