The ESA has planned a first-in-class mission in 2027, namely based on a satellite specifically designed to study the breakup of objects reentering Earth’s atmosphere. Mission DRACO stands for Destructive Reentry Assessment Container Object, an important step for the technology development foreseen by the ESA in the limit of the production of space debris. Breaking … Read more
Scientists have found that 4.02-billion-year-old silica-rich felsic rocks from the Acasta River, Canada — the oldest rock formation known on Earth — probably formed at high temperatures and at a surprisingly shallow depth of the planet’s nascent crust. The high temperatures needed to melt the shallow crust were likely caused by a meteorite bombardment around … Read more
The early surface of Mars consisting of a liquid magma ocean crystallised extremely rapidly, just 20 million year after the formation of the solar system. Thereafter, a solid crust emerged on the red planet potentially housing oceans with water and life. This was about 130 million years before a corresponding solid crust appeared on Earth. … Read more
