Slushy Snow Affects Antarctic Ice Melt

More than a tenth of Antarctica's ice projects out over the sea; this ice shelf preserves glacial ice that would otherwise fall into the Southern Ocean and raise global sea levels. But austral summers eat away at the ice, leaving meltwater collected in ponds (visible above in bright blue) and in harder-to-spot slush.  (Image credit: Copernicus Sentinel/R. Dell; research credit: R. Dell et al.; via Physics Today) Read the full article

Underground Convection Thaws Permafrost Faster

In recent years, Arctic permafrost has thawed at a surprisingly fast pace. Much of that is, of course, due to the rapid warming caused by climate change. But some of that phenomenon lives underground, where water's unusual properties cause convection in gaps between rocks, sediment, and soil. (Image credit: top - Florence D., figure - M. Magnani et al.; research credit: M. Magnani et al.) Read the full article

Water Suspected Beneath Mars

The surface features of Mars -- crossed by river deltas and sedimentary deposits -- indicate a watery past. Where that water went after the planet lost its atmosphere 3 - 4 billion years ago is an open question. But a new study suggests that quite a bit of that water moved underground rather than escaping to space. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech; research credit: V. Wright et al.; via Physics World) Read the full article

An Exoplanet With Earth-Like Temperatures

Although researchers have identified thousands of exoplanets in the last 25 years, most of them are far larger and far hotter than Earth. But a team recently announced the discovery of a temperate neighbor, Gliese 12 b, some 40 light years away.  (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt; research credit: S. Dholakia et al.; via Gizmodo) Read the full article

Venusian Lava Flows

Venus is often known as Earth's twin, given its similar size and proximity. But, thanks to its runaway greenhouse effect, Venus is a hellish landscape buried beneath a hot atmosphere of carbon dioxide and sulphuric acid.  (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech; research credit: D. Sulcanese et al.; via Gizmodo) Read the full article

Rocky Exoplanet With an Atmosphere

In the past few decades, the number of exoplanets we've found has ballooned to over 5,000, but most of these worlds are gas giants closer to Jupiter than our rocky Earth. But a recent study has turned up evidence of a rocky exoplanet that, like Earth, has an atmosphere made up of more than hydrogen. (Image credit: NASA/ESA/CSA/R. Crawford; research credit: R. Hu et al.; via Gizmodo) Read the full article

How Venus Is Losing Its Water

Since Venus formed at the same time as Earth and is similar in size, scientists believe it once had the same amount of water our planet does. Today, hellish Venus has hardly any water, a fact scientists have struggled to explain completely.  (Image credit: NASA; research credit: M. Chaffin et al.; via Gizmodo) Read the full article

The Unusual Auroras of Mars

Earth, Saturn, and Jupiter have auroras at their poles, generated by the interaction of their global magnetic fields with the solar wind. Mars has no global magnetic field, only remnants of one frozen into areas of its crust; yet it, too, has auroras.  (Image credit: R. Lillis et al.; research credit: C. Bowers et al. and B. Johnston et al.; via APS Physics) Read the full article

Reimagining Mars' Interior

Older models of Mars assumed a liquid metal core beneath a solid mantle of silicates, but recent studies indicate that structure is missing at least one layer. Using data from the InSight lander's seismometer, two teams independently calculated that a liquid silicate layer must surround the planet's core.  (Image credit: Mars - NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona, illustration - J. Sieben/J. Keisling; research credit: H. Samuel et al. and A. Khan et al.; via Physics Today) Read the full article

Fire in Ice

This false-color satellite image of Malaspina Glacier (Sít’ Tlein) is a riot of color. Composed of coastal/aerosol, near infrared, and shortwave infrared bands from Landsat 9, the colors highlight features otherwise hard to identify.  (Image credit: W. Liang; via NASA Earth Observatory) Read the full article

Exoplanet Heating

WASP-96B is a tidally-locked exoplanet between the size of Saturn and Jupiter. This hot, massive planet lies close to its star, orbiting in less than three-and-a-half Earth days.  (Image and research credit: J. Skinner et al.; via APS Physics) Read the full article