Tag Archive for 'Magma ocean'

A giant collision in the early history of Mars created a global magma ocean. Image credit: Vadim Sadovski / Imperial College London.

Martian Mantle Holds Frozen Record of Planet’s Violent Beginnings, Study Suggests

Aug 28, 2025 by News Staff

The mantle of Mars contains ancient fragments up to 4 km wide from its formation — preserved like geological fossils from the planet’s violent...

The internal structure of Io as revealed by the present study. Image credit: Sofia Shen / NASA / JPL / Caltech.

Jupiter’s Moon Io Does Not Have Subsurface Magma Ocean, Study Suggests

Dec 13, 2024 by News Staff

Volcanic activity on Io — the innermost Galilean moon of Jupiter and the most volcanically active body in the Solar System — is unlikely to...

An artist’s impression of 55 Cancri e. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / R. Crawford, STScI.

Webb Detects Secondary Atmosphere on 55 Cancri e

May 8, 2024 by News Staff

Gas bubbling up from a lava-covered surface on the super-Earth exoplanet 55 Cancri e may feed an atmosphere rich in carbon dioxide or carbon monoxide,...

Greer et al. analyzed tiny zircon crystals inside lunar dust collected in 1972 by Apollo 17 astronauts. Image credit: Eugene A. Cernan / Eric Hartwell.

Moon is Nearly 40 Million Years Older than Previously Thought

Oct 24, 2023 by News Staff

By analyzing tiny lunar zircon crystals gathered by Apollo 17 astronauts in 1972, planetary scientists recalculated the age of the Moon. Although previous...

An artist’s impression of the super-Earth exoplanet HD 164922d. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

New Research Reveals How Magma Oceans May Affect Evolution of Hot Super-Earths

Sep 26, 2023 by News Staff

Lava worlds are a potential emerging population of hot super-Earth exoplanets that are on close-in orbits around their host stars, with likely partially...

An illustration of Earth as it existed during part of its formation billions of years ago, when an ocean of magma covered its surface and stretched thousands of km deep into the core; a typical cell from a simulation conducted by Bajgain et al. with the relative positions of atoms are shown in the left. Image credit: Suraj Bajgain / Lake Superior State University.

New Research Provides Insights into Dynamics of Primordial Earth’s Magma Ocean

Feb 28, 2023 by News Staff

Previous research estimated that it took hundreds of million years for early Earth’s magma ocean to solidify, but new research narrows these large uncertainties...