Surprising Water Found on Inner Solar System Objects
December 13, 2018
Recently-visited objects in the inner solar system show evidence of water ice or volatile materials.
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Miracles in Solar System Origin Theories
September 14, 2017
Skipping over a difficulty because it can't be solved scientifically: that's one giant backward leap for theory kind.
Updates from Outer Planets
January 9, 2016
Let's review some of the latest news from missions to the outer planets.
New Earth Ocean Theory Is All Wet
November 16, 2015
Time to rewrite the textbooks again. Earth started out wet, scientists now claim, overturning decades of dogma.
Planet Recipe Cooked Up
August 24, 2015
Just add pebbles, stir, and get a planet. Is it real science, or just a game show?
Planets Defy Bottom-Up Assembly
August 15, 2015
As much as they want to imagine planets forming from dust, secular astronomers run into insurmountable difficulties.
Moon Origin Models Require Cheating
June 1, 2015
You can't get Earth's moon from a planetary collision without quasi-miraculous tweaks to the models.
Solar System Reversals
February 9, 2015
The planets keep going around, but theories about them often stop and go backward or sideways. When nothing else works, send in the impactors!
Astrobiology Hopes Dim with Exoplanet Findings
June 3, 2014
Harsh "space weather" around dim red dwarf stars may make planets uninhabitable. "Godzilla Earths" may not fare much better.
Stellar Dust Disks Crumble
March 31, 2014
Observations show stellar dust disks fragmenting into smaller dust, not growing into planets.
ISON Died a Customary Comet Death
December 2, 2013
Comet ISON was not unusual for breaking up and sputtering to a fiery end. That's in comets' nature.
Stellar Dust Disk Vanishes in 3 Years
July 7, 2012
According to widely accepted theory, planets evolve from orbiting dust disks surrounding stars. If so, planets trying to form in the dust around one young star didn't have much time. The disk evaporated within 3 years.
Three Strikes Against Uranus
October 9, 2011
Uranus has an axial tilt of 98 degrees, giving it the appearance of a bulls-eye as it revolves around the sun. Its moons revolve comfortably around the planet’s equator. This unusual arrangement, unique in the solar system, has challenged planetary scientists since its discovery. A new model accounts for it through a series of gentle bumps from impacts as the planet was forming from dust and gas, but how would one ever test such an idea?
Planet-Makers Ask Miracles to Evade Death Spiral
August 21, 2009
Remember the old artwork of planets gently forming out of dust orbiting a young star? That’s all gone. Reality has set it. Clumps of material a meter across need help – almost miraculous help – to avoid getting sucked into the star in a giant death spiral. If you don’t believe it, ask John Chambers […]
Accretion: The Missing Link in Planetary Evolution
February 3, 2004
Every school child has seen artwork of planets evolving from a disk of dust and gas around a star like our sun, but there’s a missing link in the story. How did the dust particles stick together?