INFORMATION

Mars appears red because of iron oxides in the regolith. But it's not uniformly red. Different lighting conditions and different materials accumulated on the surface can make it appear purple, as in these images from Mars Express and its High-Resolution Stereo Camera. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/173gx29 via IFTTT

Cosmic topology is as esoteric as cosmology can get. But a growing number of astrophysicists think it holds keys to understanding the universe on its largest scales. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/8pz5Pht via IFTTT

Scientists from Trinity have developed a powerful way to unravel the changing weather patterns on distant worlds. Using this approach, they discovered that the weather on a well-studied brown dwarf, “SIMP 0136”, previously linked with Northern Lights-like phenomena, is largely shaped by just two dominant processes: changes in temperature and the vertical structure of its clouds. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/cEDwBkR via IFTTT

30 years ago, an amateur astronomer noticed a white dwarf star suddenly getting brighter. New research shows this is due to a Very Late Thermal Pulse, a type of helium flash. The star has heated up and become brighter, and is now called a 'born again' star. It's evolved into a Wolf-Rayet type star, and astronomers will get to watch as it continues to evolve on human timescales. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/tLKcBvw via IFTTT

New research suggests that some unusual characteristics of the Sun may be explained if it swallowed a large planet sometime during the Solar System’s formation. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/Fr2xyaX via IFTTT

The rough, impact-debris-covered surface of Mercury has hidden the true rate at which Mercury has been shrinking, which scientists previously underestimated by 30% from Universe Today https://ift.tt/NQFD7Kr via IFTTT