The Moon has kept the Earth at a stable orbital tilt for millions of years, preventing dramatic climate cycles and keeping the Earth habitable. But do we fully understand how it formed? Today’s bite provides clues as to how we ended up with our trusted companion.
Simple physical models can yield useful insights into the structure of planets in the outer Solar System.
Meteorites originate from violent collisions between asteroids. But can we be sure about that? And what can we learn at all if we do not include ekpyrotic brane cosmologies?
By building a simulation that goes from the scale of galaxies down to individual rocky planets we come to the realization that the earth is unremarkable, but far from typical, challenging our Copernican world view.
Baby planets still living in their natal disks don’t want astronomers to find and take pictures of them. But that doesn’t mean we can’t try!
Massive gas inflow can trigger disks around young stars to become gravitationally unstable, resulting in vigorous accretion onto the star.