[NASA]. Ares Vallis is a large valley that was carved billions of years ago by water flowing across the surface of Mars.
astrogeology
Posted inAstrogeology
Planet Formation at Cosmic Dawn: Planetesimals in H2O-rich Disks around Low-mass Stars
[The Astrophysical Journal Letters]. Primordial, or Population III (Pop III), supernovae (SNe) were the first nucleosynthetic engines in the Universe, forging the heavy elements required for the later formation of […]
![Simulated ablation heights of IDPs in exoplanet atmospheres. Our fiducial simulation is marked in red. Solid and dashed curves signify IDP compositions of MgSiO3 and Fe, respectively. The black dashed curve on the left most panel shows the approximation of the mass injection function Fv(p) for an arbitrary IDP mass flux for comparison with the ablation profiles. -- [astro-ph.EP]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Interplanetary-Dust.png?resize=1200%2C721&ssl=1)
Posted inAstrogeology
Interplanetary Dust Ablation Seeds Silicate Clouds in Exoplanet Atmospheres
[astro-ph.EP] Interplanetary dust particles (IDPs) are present throughout the Solar System, with Earth experiencing a mass flux of roughly 100 tonnes of IDPs per day.
Posted inAstrogeology
Trans-Neptunian Objects Remember Their Past
[NASA]. For the first time, scientists used the joint power of NASA’s Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes to study some of the most far-flung bodies in our solar system, […]
![[TOP] Marginal posterior probability distribution functions of the Bayesian fit to Eq. 1 when [X/H] is the mean abundance of iron-peak elements (left), volatile elements (middle), and α elements (right). The vertical line indicates the mean of the distribution. [BOTTOM] Same as above but considering only the stars with a spectral type earlier than F5. -- [astro-ph.EP]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Signatures.png?resize=1200%2C718&ssl=1)
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets
Signatures Of Rocky Debris Accretion In AF-Type Planet Hosts
[astro-ph.EP] The gas-giant planet-metallicity correlation plays a fundamental role in our understanding of planet formation.
Posted inImaging & Spectroscopy
Analytical Platform (Microsampling, Catapulting, Trapping, and LIBS) for the Characterization of Discrete Domains in Samples of Astrochemical Interest
[Analytical Chemistry] The chemical characterization of scarce or heterogeneous solid samples remains a significant analytical challenge due to the high material quantities required by conventional techniques.
![LT solution with 2036 launch. Continuous thick curve: trajectory, Short segments: thrust law, Dashed lines: planet and comet orbits. -- [astro-ph.EP]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Double-Gravity.png?resize=1200%2C718&ssl=1)
Posted inComets and Asteroids
Double Gravity-Assist Rendezvous Trajectory to Halley’s Comet Using Deep-Space Low Thrust
[astro-ph.EP] The perihelion of comet 1P/Halley in 2061 is an excellent chance to revisit this object of outstanding scientific and cultural relevance. During its 1986 approach to the Sun, it […]
![Plot of the frequency vs. diameter for all asteroids with known or estimated rotation period with quality code 𝑈 ≥ 1. File data from the ALCDB of 1 Oct 2023, the last release (https://alcdef.org/). The two near-Earth asteroids, 2000 RD34 and 2000 DN8 (both with 𝑈 = 1), are shown together with the five LSFR from Rubin observations (red) and the candidate LSFR or almost candidate (due to borderline diameter as for 2015 RG36 and 2024 WB), which we have characterized at the Loiano Astronomical Station, managed by INAF-OAS in Italy (cyan). The curves for the rubble pile model with cohesion strength are from Eq. 12 (Sánchez and Scheeres, 2014). Our candidates LSFR has a cohesive strength between 102–104 Pa. -- [astro-ph.EP]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Photometric.png?resize=1200%2C721&ssl=1)
Posted inComets and Asteroids
Photometric Characterization Of Near-Earth Asteroids: Rotation, Taxonomy, And Candidate Evidence For Internal Cohesion
[astro-ph.EP] We present the results of a survey of previously uncharacterized near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) conducted between the second half of 2024 and the first months of 2026 using broadband BVRcIc […]
![KDE-based mass probability map for the latest solution (0.8 h before impact) of 2023 CX1, corresponding to the smallest positional uncertainty. Colors represent the spatial mass probability density, contours denote the highest posterior density regions, and crosses mark recovered meteorites (size and color proportional to mass). -- [astro-ph.EP]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Sample-Return-Tech.png?resize=1200%2C716&ssl=1)
Posted inMeteorites & Asteroids
Sample Return Tech: Pre-impact Meteorite Strewn Field Predictions For Imminent Impactors And Meteorite Recovery
[astro-ph.EP] The flux of meteoroids reaching the Earth is continuous, ranging from microscopic grains to occasional metre and decametre scale bodies. The smallest ones fully ablate in the upper atmosphere, […]
Posted inTitan
Dragonfly Gets Wired Up While Titan Landing Area Is Named
[NASA]. Peeking into the clean room at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, it might be one of the first things you notice about NASA’s Dragonfly: […]