John Wenz, Author at Astronomy.com

Venus may never have had oceans

John Wenz — Mon, 02 Dec 2024 18:15:53 +0000

The story of the inner early Solar System goes something like this: Billions of years ago, there were three rocky worlds with oceans of liquid water. Perhaps all three could have been primed for life. But as Mars lost its atmosphere and Venus’ atmosphere experienced a runaway greenhouse effect, only Earth could support life byContinue reading "Venus may never have had oceans"

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Uranus and Neptune have weird magnetic fields — this might be why

John Wenz — Mon, 25 Nov 2024 20:00:00 +0000

In 1986 and 1989, Voyager 2 made the final two stops on its grand tour of the outer solar system when it swept by Uranus and Neptune, respectively. Now, nearly 40 years later, the archive of data the craft collected is still returning unexpected results. In a paper published today in PNAS, astronomer Burkhard MilitzerContinue reading "Uranus and Neptune have weird magnetic fields — this might be why"

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This young, shrouded super-Neptune could help teach us how such planets form

John Wenz — Wed, 20 Nov 2024 16:12:12 +0000

Not so far from Earth, an infant planet is just getting its start at life. And by peeking beneath the thick cocoon of material surrounding it, astronomers could be getting a rare chance to watch a world for which our solar system has no equivalent settle into its early life. The planet closely orbits theContinue reading "This young, shrouded super-Neptune could help teach us how such planets form"

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Could a methane crust be keeping Titan warm?

John Wenz — Tue, 05 Nov 2024 19:00:00 +0000

The second-largest moon in our solar system may have a secret ingredient that explains many of its mysteries — and maybe ups the chances for life there. In research published Sept. 30 in The Planetary Science Journal, a University of Hawaii-led team modeled the potential for methane clathrate (a kind of methane-infused water ice) inContinue reading "Could a methane crust be keeping Titan warm?"

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Astronomers find out the first known brown dwarf is actually twins

John Wenz — Mon, 28 Oct 2024 15:00:00 +0000

In 1995, a parallel race was on in astronomy — one to find the first planet beyond our own solar system, and the other to find the first brown dwarf, a class of object too heavy to be a planet, but below the mass of a star. Astronomers ended up publishing the discovery of theContinue reading "Astronomers find out the first known brown dwarf is actually twins"

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Most meteorites come from just three sources

John Wenz — Wed, 16 Oct 2024 17:04:14 +0000

A pair of papers published today in Nature look at the origins of many meteorites that have fallen to Earth. By examining the detailed makeup of the rocks, ascertaining the time that has passed since they broke off larger bodies, and comparing these to asteroids in space, researchers found evidence that a great majority ofContinue reading "Most meteorites come from just three sources"

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Short-lived organics on Ceres hint at a past ocean — and conditions ripe for life

John Wenz — Thu, 26 Sep 2024 15:09:24 +0000

Dwarf planet Ceres is one of the most enigmatic worlds in our solar system — one whose secrets scientists have only been uncovering in the last decade. When NASA’s Dawn mission arrived in 2015, it uncovered an active, salt-rich world that might have — or once have had — an ocean. Now, new research providesContinue reading "Short-lived organics on Ceres hint at a past ocean — and conditions ripe for life"

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The “Wow! Signal,” not surprisingly, was a dud

John Wenz — Tue, 17 Sep 2024 11:00:00 +0000

One of the most enduring mysteries in astronomy may have just been solved — and sorry folks, it’s not aliens. In a paper posted last month to the arXiv preprint server, a team of astronomers report they may have finally found the source of the Wow! Signal. Overnight on August 15, 1977, the Big EarContinue reading "The “Wow! Signal,” not surprisingly, was a dud"

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ALMA reveals a star’s surface in unprecedented detail

John Wenz — Thu, 12 Sep 2024 17:00:00 +0000

The stars in the sky are so distant that they typically appear as pinpricks even to our most powerful telescopes. Aside from the Sun, only a few nearby, bloated stars appear large enough to capture any features on their surface, however crude. New images released Sept. 11, however, capture one of the most detailed imagesContinue reading "ALMA reveals a star’s surface in unprecedented detail"

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Event Horizon Telescope captures highest-resolution images ever taken from the ground

John Wenz — Tue, 27 Aug 2024 17:29:34 +0000

The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) was designed to capture images of some of the most gargantuan structures in the universe — and a new observation just pushed it to its limits. In a study published in The Astrophysical Journal, scientists working on the EHT — a consortium of 11 radio telescopes spread out across nineContinue reading "Event Horizon Telescope captures highest-resolution images ever taken from the ground"

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