Engineers boost output of solar desalination system by 50% with inexpensive method
Rice University's solar-powered approach for purifying saltwater with sunlight and nanoparticles is even more efficient than its creators first believed.
Researchers in Rice's Laboratory for...
How did Mars get its clouds? Add meteors, say scientists
Scientists have observed clouds in Mars' middle atmosphere, beginning about 18 miles above the planet's surface, but can't explain how they form.
A new study...
Scientists find sun’s history buried in moon’s crust
The Sun is why we're here. It's also why Martians or Venusians are not.
When the Sun was just a baby four billion years ago,...
Flyby of Saturn’s C ring triggers more questions than answers
Instead of uncovering scientific answers, the spectral images from a Cassini flyby of Saturn’s rings triggered more questions than answers.
As NASA’s Cassini spacecraft threaded...
1.2 billion years ago, a 1-kilometer asteroid smashed into Scotland
In 2008, scientists from Oxford and Aberdeen University made a startling discovery in the northwest of Scotland.
Near the village of Ullapool, which sits on...
Cold quasars could rewrite our understanding of how galaxies mature
Astronomers have discovered a new class of “cold quasars” that could change our perception of how galaxies mature.
The discovery was announced June 12 at...
Young ‘hot Jupiter’ offers clues to how planets form
CI Tau b is a paradoxical planet, but new research is starting to answer questions about how a planet so large could have formed...
We could find Jupiter-like exoplanets in sweet spot in most systems
As planets form in the swirling gas and dust around young stars, there seems to be a sweet spot where most of the large,...
Scientists discover table salt on Jupiter’s moon Europa
A familiar ingredient has been hiding in plain sight on the surface of Jupiter's moon Europa.
Using a visible light spectral analysis, planetary scientists at...
Rare ‘superflares’ could one day threaten Earth
Superflares are massive bursts of energy from the surface of a star.
New research shows that such eruptions can occur on stars as old and...