INFORMATION

New research presents a timeline for recent (astronomically speaking) events in the Saturnian system. It shows that Titan collided with a proto-Hyperion, and the collision smoothed Titan's surface while some of the debris accreted onto a new Hyperion and also created Saturn's rings. The research can also explain some of the Saturnian system's other unusual characteristics. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/ZiOEuh1 via IFTTT

SpaceX founder Elon Musk now says he wants to build a city on the moon before building a city on Mars. Is either scenario realistic? In the latest episode of the Fiction Science podcast, biologist Scott Solomon, the author of a new book titled "Becoming Martian," does a reality check on humanity's prospects for living on other worlds. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/7kh0E8w via IFTTT

Results are coming out from the samples returned by China’s Chang’e-6 sample return mission to the far side of the Moon. They offer our first close-up look at the geology and history of the far side, and a recent paper published in Science Advances from researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences has very interesting insights about the impact history of the Moon itself, and even some for the solar system at large. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/oTnXhZ7 via IFTTT

Using local resources will be key to any mission to either the Moon or Mars - in large part because of how expensive it is to bring those resources up from Earth to our newest outposts. But Mars in particular has one local resource that has long been thought of as a negative - perchlorates. These chemicals, which are toxic to almost all life, make up between 0.5-1% of Martian soil, and have long been thought to be a hindrance rather than a help to our colonization efforts for the new planet. But a new paper from researchers at the Indian Institute of Science and the University of Florida shows that, when making the bricks that will build the outpost, perchlorates actually help. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/7jzaEOW via IFTTT

According to the researchers from the University of Pennsylvania, some of the amino acids found in the asteroid Bennu likely formed in a different way than was previously thought, effectively challenging what we thought we knew about the origins of life. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/oegrGhA via IFTTT

A complex web of interrelated factors make Earth a life-supporting planet, and some of those factors are chemical. New research shows how oxygen abundance regulates the availability of the important chemicals phosphorous and nitrogen on planets, and that few planets get it right. While discouraging, it could help us optimize our search for habitable worlds. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/EdTu92K via IFTTT