Topic description and stories

View of surface of Venus

Researchers deal a blow to theory that Venus once had liquid water on its surface

02 Dec 2024

A team of astronomers has found that Venus has never been habitable, despite decades of speculation that our closest planetary neighbour was once...

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An iron meteorite from the core of a melted planetesimal (left) and a chondrite meteorite, derived from a ‘primitive’, unmelted planetesimal (right).

How did the building blocks of life arrive on Earth?

11 Oct 2024

Researchers have used the chemical fingerprints of zinc contained in meteorites to determine the origin of volatile elements on Earth. The results...

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Sunrise over Venus

Mysterious missing component in the clouds of Venus revealed

09 Jan 2024

Researchers may have identified the missing component in the chemistry of the Venusian clouds that would explain their colour and 'splotchiness' in...

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Liquid water beneath Martian polar ice cap

29 Sep 2022

An international team of researchers has revealed new evidence for the possible existence of liquid water beneath the south polar ice cap of Mars.

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Venus, from Mariner 10

No signs (yet) of life on Venus

14 Jun 2022

The unusual behaviour of sulphur in Venus’ atmosphere cannot be explained by an ‘aerial’ form of extra-terrestrial life, according to a new study.

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False-colour image of impact recrystallised phosphate mineral in Chelyabinsk meteorite

Microscopic view on asteroid collisions could help us understand planet formation

24 Feb 2022

A new way of dating collisions between asteroids and planetary bodies throughout our Solar System’s history could help scientists reconstruct how and...

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Artist's impression of a Hycean planet

New class of habitable exoplanets 'a big step forward' in search for life

26 Aug 2021

A new class of exoplanet very different to our own, but which could support life, has been identified by astronomers, which could greatly accelerate...

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Cambridge researcher joins NASA science mission searching for signs of past life on Mars

18 Feb 2021

Professor Nicholas Tosca from the University of Cambridge is the only UK scientist selected by NASA to be part of the core science team for the Mars...

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Artist's impression of the protoplanetary disk with magnetic field lines

Astronomers identify new method of planet formation

12 Feb 2021

Scientists have suggested a new explanation for the abundance in intermediate-mass exoplanets – a long-standing puzzle in astronomy.

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Synthesized false colour image of Venus

Hints of life discovered on Venus

14 Sep 2020

A UK-led team of astronomers has discovered a rare molecule – phosphine – in the clouds of Venus, pointing to the possibility of extra-terrestrial ‘...

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Mystery orbits in outermost reaches of solar system not caused by ‘Planet Nine’, say researchers

21 Jan 2019

The strange orbits of some objects in the farthest reaches of our solar system, hypothesised by some astronomers to be shaped by an unknown ninth...

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Priceless treasures: in a shot commissioned to celebrate Cambridge University Library’s 600th anniversary, Professor Stephen Hawking is pictured with Newton’s annotated first edition of Principia Mathematica.  Credit: Graham CopeKoga

Understanding gravity - from Newton to Hawking

29 Apr 2016

The most important publication in the history of science – Isaac Newton’s own annotated copy of Principia Mathematica – and other seminal works by...

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