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    Listen to the crackle of Martian ‘mini-lightning’

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    When the wind blows on Mars, electricity crackles through the air.

    For the first time, scientists have detected electricity in the Red Planet’s atmosphere. A microphone on NASA’s Perseverance rover captured the sounds and electrical interference of dozens of electrical discharges generated by colliding dust grains, researchers report November 26 in Nature.

    The jolts are relatively small, packing a punch that’s akin to the shock from touching a doorknob on a dry, winter day. Nonetheless, they could pose a hazard for future astronauts and electronics and hamper the search for Martian life, if it ever existed, the researchers warn. More

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      Boiling oceans may sculpt the surfaces of small icy moons

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      Small, icy moons might be boiling under their surface.

      Many moons in the outer solar system are thought to harbor subsurface oceans beneath their icy crusts. New computer simulations, reported November 24 in Nature Astronomy, suggest that changes in the thickness of these icy shells can cause water in the underlying oceans to boil at low temperatures. This boiling may lead to geologic features, such as the ridgelike formations called coronae seen on Uranus’ moon Miranda. More

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      Early views of a supernova’s first moments reveal a lopsided blast

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      When one supernova commenced, it looked like an olive — at least before it got shaken and stirred.

      This insight, reported in the Nov. 12 Science Advances, comes from new observations taken in the wake of a massive star’s death. As some of the most comprehensive views ever captured of a supernova’s first moments, the findings give astronomers important clues about how these explosions begin.

      On April 10, 2024, a supernova was detected in a nearby galaxy. Over the next 26 hours, an international collaboration of astronomers sprang into action to gather additional observations of the explosion before it progressed too far. Their efforts produced the earliest look at the shape of any supernova — the explosive death of a massive star — and revealed its blast wave breaking through the stellar surface.  More

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      How did Pluto capture its largest moon, Charon?

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      McKenzie Prillaman is a science and health journalist based in Washington, DC. She holds a bachelor’s degree in neuroscience from the University of Virginia and a master’s degree in science communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz. She was the spring 2023 intern at Science News. More

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      Some planets might home brew their own water

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      Some planets might produce their own water instead of relying on outside sources.

      In laboratory experiments, researchers simulated extreme conditions found within certain exoplanets by blasting olivine — a mineral abundant in planetary interiors — with high-energy lasers in the presence of hydrogen gas. Hydrogen strips the minerals of their oxygen atoms, which then react with the hydrogen to form water, the team reports October 29 in Nature.

      The discovery offers a viable explanation for water-rich exoplanets orbiting close to their host stars, the researcher say. The process might even account for the origin of some of Earth’s water, adding a new piece to a longstanding mystery. More