The dry Martian climate makes the planet prone to large, planetary-scale dust storms that could jeopardize costly research and exploration missions. A team of scientists recently developed the GoMars Mars General Circulation Model to simulate 50 years of Martian dust cycles. Ultimately, refinements to this model will help researchers better predict large-scale Martian dust storms and optimize mission launch windows.

Neutron stars are compact objects with strong gravity and extreme magnetic fields. A research team investigated long-term X-ray variability in the neutron star NGC 7793 P13. This object is thought to be driven by supercritical accretion, where an extraordinary amount of gas falls onto the object and emits intense X-rays. The team found a mysterious relation between the X-ray luminosity and the rotation velocity. This result could provide clues to reveal the supercritical accretion mechanism.

A new study published in Planet reveals a Micro-XRD method to quantitatively measure the ancient collision histories of meteorites. Researchers from China, Canada, and Japan have developed a quantitative technique to determine peak shock pressures in enstatite chondrites—rare meteorites chemically linked to Earth’s building blocks—using micro-X-ray diffraction (micro-XRD) method.

New experiments reveal jarosite’s selective bromine capture under Mars-like conditions, offering a fresh lens to decode the Red Planet’s aqueous past and halogen cycling.

Astronomers discovered a new exoplanet hidden in decade-old data. Planet is bound to binary stars, which orbit each other every 18 days. Planet is six times closer to its stars than other directly imaged planets orbiting binary systems.

A Carnegie-led team of astronomers detected the strongest evidence yet of an atmosphere around a rocky planet beyond our Solar System. Their work, published in The Astrophysical Journal, used NASA’s JWST to reveal an alien atmosphere in an unexpected place—an ancient, ultra-hot super-Earth that likely hosts a magma ocean.