Planets can be extremely hot when they are born, and new computational experiments show that such planets would have an atmosphere composed of a homogenous mixture of hydrogen and water. As the planets age, their temperature decreases, and the hydrogen and water begin to separate. The subsequent rainout of water could not only generate an unexpected amount of heat deep inside these worlds but reshape the composition of atmospheres and evolution of these planets for billions of years. The work has implications for potentially habitable exoplanets with a hydrogen atmosphere overlying a water ocean, depending on the planets’ internal temperatures. 

The Simons Observatory, a most advanced network of telescopes aimed at mapping the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) with unprecedented precision, has reached a major milestone: the Large Aperture Telescope (LAT) has achieved first light. This marks the full deployment of the observatory, beginning of a new era of cosmological observations that could unveil fundamental aspects of the early Universe, aiming at the detection of cosmological Gravitational Waves from the very first moment after the Big Bang. 

SISSA has been the first SO Member Institution in Italy, and plays a crucial role in the SO, leading the Theory and Analysis Committee (TAC). Under the chairship of Prof. Nicoletta Krachmalnicoff, the TAC provides guidance to the collaboration in terms of scientific strategy, ensuring that SO's data analysis and theoretical models maximize the impact of the experiment.

New research led by a York University professor sheds light on the earliest days of the earth’s formation and potentially calls into question some earlier assumptions in planetary science about the early years of rocky planets. Establishing a direct link between the Earth’s interior dynamics occurring within the first 100 million years of its history and its present-day structure, the work is one of the first in the field to combine fluid mechanics with chemistry to better understand the Earth's early evolution.