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New thunderstorms wider than Earth are spewing out green lightning on Jupiter — and could make one of the gas giant's massive bands disappear
By Harry Baker published
A pair of massive thunderstorms have been spotted swirling in Jupiter's "South Equatorial Belt" and are likely unleashing massive bolts of green lightning. Some experts think the pale clouds could end up altering the rusty band's color — and potentially even making it "disappear."
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Did Venus ever have oceans to support life, or was it 'born hot'?
By Robert Lea published
"We would have loved to find that Venus was once a planet much closer to our own, so it’s kind of sad in a way to find out that it wasn't."
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Did alien life exist in hot water on Mars billions of years ago?
By Robert Lea published
Was alien life in "hot water" on Mars billions of years ago? New evidence from the Martian meteorite "Black Beauty" suggests so.
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Gigantic 'spiderwebs' on Mars are the next big target for NASA's Curiosity rover, agency reveals
By Harry Baker published
Curiosity has just finished the latest leg of its 12-year Mars mission and will now set out to explore miles of web-like surface features left behind by ancient water on the Red Planet. The zig-zagging rocks could also provide clues about whether Mars once harbored extraterrestrial life.
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'Baby' exoplanet, equivalent to 2-week-old infant, is the youngest alien world ever spotted — and it's orbiting a wonky star
By Harry Baker published
A new study has identified an exoplanet that is just 3 million years old — around 1,500 times younger than Earth — alongside a misaligned protoplanetary disk that researchers cannot explain.
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China's Mars rover Zhurong finds possible shoreline of ancient Red Planet ocean
By Sharmila Kuthunur published
Data from China's Zhurong rover has revealed what appears to be an ancient shoreline streaking through Mars' northern hemisphere.
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'Unique and extreme': James Webb telescope detects possible alien world bubbling over with volcanoes
By Agnibha Banerjee published
Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have detected possible signs of gases released by volcanic activity on a distant exoplanet.
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We've been wrong about Uranus for nearly 40 years, new analysis of Voyager 2 data reveals
By Ben Turner last updated
Voyager 2's 1986 flyby of Uranus, the main source of our knowledge of the icy planet, could have come at the same time as a weird plasma burst from the sun.
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