Astronomy and Planetary Science Thread

Here's a video about a prehistoric mega thrust earthquake that functionally split California is two:


The prehistoric megathrust earthquakes of California reveal a seismic history far older and more powerful than the well-known 1906 San Francisco event. Using paleoseismology, scientists analyze sediment layers, fault scarps, and displaced landforms along systems like the San Andreas Fault to reconstruct massive ruptures that reached magnitudes above 8.0. These events occurred during the late Pleistocene and early Holocene, reshaping river systems, altering coastlines, and leaving geological evidence of sudden, catastrophic ground displacement.​
Trenches dug across ancient fault lines expose buried soils and offset strata, allowing researchers to date past earthquakes through radiocarbon methods and stratigraphic analysis. These findings suggest that California has experienced repeated “Big Ones” over thousands of years, long before human records existed. The scale of these quakes would have dramatically impacted Ice Age ecosystems, potentially affecting megafauna such as mammoths and saber-toothed cats.​
This deep seismic past shows that extreme earthquakes are not rare anomalies but recurring forces that have continually reshaped the landscape, reminding us how dynamic and unstable Earth’s crust truly is.​
00:00 Intro
00:53 The Engine Underneath
04:03 The Diary in the Dirt
06:51 The Carrizo Plain Cluster
09:51 The Map That Broke
12:54 Living Through the End of the Ground
17:14 The Oldest Monsters
19:46 The Same Engine, Still Running
 
The Sun

Sunspots as tools--ESPRESSO

I'll take mine decaf

Telescopes

asteroids

CosmoBlasts

Mercury

Venus

Earth

Mars-type worlds

LEO

Bracewell probes

ET language

Uranus

The end

Black holes

Great....how many times have I said to properly....never mind
View: https://m.youtube.com/shorts/oMcWdzhYZ9U
 
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Study shows a massive asteroid slammed into the North Sea, triggering a 330-foot-high tsunami

A team of scientists discovered recently that Silverpit was, in fact, created by an asteroid strike more than 43 million years ago.

The discovery resolves a decades-long geological dispute and reframes the seabed as the preserved aftermath of a violent ancient impact.

Deep below muddy sediments about 80 miles off England’s east coast, Silverpit appears as a bowl with raised center and ringed faults.

Using sharper 3D scans, Dr. Uisdean Nicholson at Heriot-Watt University matched that pattern to damage only a high-speed impact.

His team then recovered rare shocked grains from nearby drill cuttings, giving the crater the hard proof earlier arguments lacked.

That combination closed the question of origin, but it also pushed scientists to reconstruct the violence of the strike.
 
Space art from 1882.

 

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On 9-13 February 2026, scientists met at the Lorentz Centre in Leiden, the Netherlands, to explore past and present conditions for habitability on Venus. The scientists established the state-of-the-art knowledge of the coevolution of the planet's surface, interior, and atmosphere through time enabling habitability. The objectives and ability of planned and candidate future Venus missions to address key habitability questions were assessed. An overview of the workshop objectives and discussions is provided in this video, and the outcome is being prepared as a peer-reviewed journal paper to be submitted soon.

Credit: This video was produced by Lightcurve Films for the Lorentz Centre "Roadmap to the Exploration of Venus Habitability" workshop, 9-13 February 2026. The video production was funded by the European Astrobiology Institute.
View: https://youtu.be/xhCdanBLASc
 
Anton Petrov has a video out concerning the possible actual discovery of Population III stars:


0:00 Did we finally find the first ever stars?
1:18 Star classification
4:20 GN-z11 galaxy and Hebe region
5:20 How and what was discovered
7:10 Limitations and implications
8:30 Other possibilities?
9:40 Conclusions and what's next?
 
What is Proxima Centauri b like? There are several very widely differing scenarios: airless rock, a super-Europa with 'explosive' cryovolcanism, a hellish cross between Venus and Io, a world with an actual ocean but on an eccentric orbit so that there are kilometre-high tides as it wobbles back and forth, and so on.

As the creator summarises, 'If, if, if, if, if.' Or, "Nobody knows anything.' Or 'We've got a long way to go' as new telescopic technologies appear. Indeed, that's one reason to keep living.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7in6nsUWYu8


Papers linked in the description:


 
X-Ray astronomy breakthrough?

Mars

Galaxy core

On space
 
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Rare Comet Visible For First Time In 170,000 Years This Weekend

Days after astronauts on NASA’s Artemis II mission witnessed a total solar eclipse from the moon’s far side, a new comet is emerging in the predawn sky — and it could soon become visible to the naked eye. After a widely followed moon mission, this comet offers a rare chance for anyone to witness a dramatic event in the night sky without special equipment. Here’s everything you need to know about comet Pan-STARRS, also known as comet C/2025 R3 (Pan-STARRS).



The comet will reach perihelion (closest to the sun) on Sunday, April 19, passing at a safe distance of about 0.5 AU — half the Earth-sun distance — meaning it is unlikely to disintegrate like last week’s “sungrazer” comet MAPS, which vaporized.



Comet Pan-STARRS will make its closest approach to Earth on Monday, April 27, when it is expected to be at its brightest, though by then it will be impossible to see from the Northern Hemisphere.

Observers in the Northern Hemisphere should look low in the eastern sky about 90 minutes before sunrise until April 20. It’s currently moving close to the four bright stars of the Great Square of Pegasus.
 
When the Earth Had Supermountains:
with Africa moving into Europa and near East geological
it will form new supermountains
from Gibraltar to Tibet were the India subcontinent moving into Asia
even longer if Australia compact everything on it move northwards

that would be somewhere in 50 Million years from now, follow by new evolutionary boost
 
Anton Petrov has out a new video concerning new findings as to where the solar the solar nebula the Sun was formed in originally was:


0:00 Sun and solar twins
0:42 How we thought the Sun was born
3:05 Solar twins and why they matter
4:25 New study from Japan and discovery of 6500 stars
5:15 Main discovery - birth place near the center
6:30 How did the Sun migrate so far?
8:30 What happened billions of years ago?
9:25 Implications and conclusions
 
It appears that Vesuvius is "Hotter" than expected:


The infamous Mount Vesuvius volcano in Italy produces elevated levels of radioactivity. And this is not due to some accident, as rather much of the volcano and its lavas display this same property. Thankfully, the level of radioactivity is not considered harmful, but is considered anomalous. So, why exactly does Mount Vesuvius produce elevated levels of radioactivity unlike at most other world volcanoes? Today's video will answer this question through the knowledge and analysis of a geologist.​
And yes, visiting Mount Vesuvius really IS safe. I visited it recently myself :D.
Thumbnail Photo Credit: Keaton Terry, Used with Permission
https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...rg/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode&v=wX4nUuV7YcU
Sources/Citations:
[1] INGV
[2] Breit, G.N., and Hall, S.M., 2011, Deposit model for volcanogenic uranium deposits: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2011–1255, 5 p.
[3] The "isotopes of lanthanum" chart on the Wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lanthanum, CC BY-SA 4.0.
[4] The "isotopes of lutetium" chart on the Wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lutetium, CC BY-SA 4.0.
[6] The "isotopes of potassium" chart on the Wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potassium, CC BY-SA 4.0.
[7] The "isotopes of rhenium" chart on the Wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhenium, CC BY-SA 4.0.
[8] The "isotopes of rubidium" chart on the Wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubidium, CC BY-SA 4.0.
[9] The "isotopes of samarium" chart on the Wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samarium, CC BY-SA 4.0.
[10] The "isotopes of thorium" chart on the Wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorium, CC BY-SA 4.0.
[11] The "isotopes of uranium" chart on the Wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium, CC BY-SA 4.0.
[12] Radon surveys and monitoring at active volcanoes: learning from Vesuvius, Stromboli, La Soufrière and VillarricaC. Cigolini , M. Laiolo , D. Coppola , C. Trovato , and G. Borgogno
[13] Riccardo Avanzinelli, Martina Casalini, Tim Elliott, Sandro Conticelli; Carbon fluxes from subducted carbonates revealed by uranium excess at Mount Vesuvius, Italy. Geology 2018;; 46 (3): 259–262. doi: https://doi.org/10.1130/G39766.1https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...ttps://doi.org/10.1130/G39766.1&v=wX4nUuV7YcU
[14] Rapolla, A., Vittozzi, P. Radioactivity of Vesuvian lavas and their dating by the disequilibrium Ra226 - U238 . Bull Volcanol 32, 353–364 (1968). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02599774https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...ps://doi.org/10.1007/BF02599774&v=wX4nUuV7YcU

0:00 Vesuvius Radioactivity
1:27 Radioactive Isotopes
2:31 Vesuvius Model
4:13 Summit Fumaroles
 
What if you stood on a planet orbiting Pulsar?


Exploring exactly what if you stood on a planet orbiting a pulsar will reveal the ultimate cosmic death trap hidden in the deepest parts of our galaxy.
You are about to touch down on a dead, irradiated world bathed in the relentless glow of a rapidly spinning neutron star. We break down the agonizing physical reality of trying to survive under a cosmic lighthouse that violently blasts lethal energy across the void. This documentary explores the brutal magnetic fields and the terrifying physics that would instantly vaporize any unprotected deep space explorer.​
Many people wonder what happens to a solar system after a massive star explodes in a violent supernova. We are taught that these cosmic blasts destroy absolutely everything within light-years of the impact zone. But sometimes, the charred remnants of terrestrial worlds actually manage to survive the initial shockwave. These dead, rocky bodies are left circling a hyper-dense, collapsed core known as a neutron star. What happens when you walk on the surface of a world locked in this terrifying gravitational trap? The alien sky above you would be completely dominated by a spinning sphere of pure, superheated matter. These stellar corpses rotate at mind-bending speeds, sometimes spinning hundreds of times every single second. As they spin, they project twin beams of lethal electromagnetic radiation out from their violent magnetic poles. This creates a blinding, high-energy strobe effect that relentlessly sweeps across the surrounding planetary bodies. If you were standing directly in the path of this cosmic lighthouse, the radiation wave would be instantly fatal. Your advanced spacesuit would offer absolutely no protection against the continuous barrage of gamma rays and X-rays. The immense magnetic forces at play would also violently strip away any remaining atmosphere on the dead world. Even the basic atomic structure of your own body would be warped and torn apart by the intense magnetic fields. Understanding the physics of these extreme environments shows us how violently hostile stellar evolution truly is. We are essentially looking at a zombie solar system that continues to exist long after its parent star has completely died. By studying these distant, pulsing radio signals, astronomers can slowly map out the darkest graveyards of our galaxy. The brutal reality of these dead worlds is far more terrifying than any science fiction nightmare.​
 
Nuts

Exoplanet database

3D Universe map

Trojan

Mercury

Black holes
View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XdEAXj6PB2w


Mid-space collision

The night sky

Sample safety

No cheap
 
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NASA Finds Young Stars Dim in X-rays Surprisingly Quickly

Scientists have found that young stellar cousins of our Sun are calming down and dimming more quickly in their X-ray output than previously thought, according to a new study using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. A paper describing the results published Monday in The Astrophysical Journal.
Mystery 'rogue planets' have been spotted drifting through our galaxy. And some could support life

Some planets are stuck following the same orbital paths their entire lives. Others break free to wander alone through the vast, empty darkness of interstellar space. And there's a lot more of them than you might think
 
What we know about Europa at the moment.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bA_xw7J2ZCM

All titles and thumbnails are clickbait. Ignore these too - and especially the tentacled beastie - but pay attention to the content.

0:00 Europa
1:03 The Orbital Engine
4:13 The Surface: A Record of Chaos
7:26 The Shield: 29 Kilometers of Ice
11:11 The Ocean: Two Earths’ Worth of Water
14:45 The Seafloor: The Quiet Revolution
18:04 The Atmosphere: The Persistent Haze
21:24 The Missions: Clipper and JUICE

A pretty detailed description incorporating the latest discoveries and modelling. Currently, it looks like there may be pressurised lakes with a 29 km thick crust under a hard outer shell covering a more ductile ice. While the ice is thick, geological processes may deliver critical molecules to the ocean. The ocean itself is slightly alkaline, allowing complex chemistry and has complex circulation. However, the ocean floor may be quiet without the vents found in Earth's oceans, resulting in a very low energy budget that probably rules out complex life and an ecosystem using geophysical energy. There is a thin atmosphere, and it reveals the chemistry of the moon, but rather than being created by explosive geysers like Enceladus, there's a constant haze that can be analysed reliably without any complicated manoeuvres or guesswork. The video then goes into the complementary roles that the Clipper and Juice probes - currently en route - along with Juno.

And then when they arrive and set up shop, they're going to upend all of what we assumed until then.

I want to believe in vents on the Europan seafloor and that is entirely wishful thinking and the straw I'm grasping is criticism of the recent study indicating that Io may not have a magma ocean.


Versus these, which raise uncertainty about a certain conclusion:


Damn, I can't find it, but a critique of that study that led to the suggestion that Io doesn't have a global magma ocean was that interpretation of sensor data had excluded mid-level heating and only focussed on the hotest spots, leading to a bias favouring individual sites of vulcanism. Currently, this is a minority view. My point is, don't rely on one study to drawn a definitive conclusion - rely on observations that are as direct as possible and the consensus of multiple studies. So, the Europan ocean might support a rich ecosystem, but does it have the energy budget? Current reports suggest no, but let's see what we learn from the next round of probes.

Anyway, this video is serious, up-to-date, and detailed. Well worth a look.
 
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An absolutely informal rule: if it's possible, then over time it will become complicated.

We've found that under the Antarctic ice there is a complex and dynamic system of rivers and lakes that do in fact contain at least simple life. Since the Europan crust is certainly very complex and dynamic and there is the possibility of briny lakes within the ice, then they may have been interacting for a long time - so it's not the ocean or not only the ocean that's the Europan biosphere, but the crust.
 
It would not surprise me to find life of some kind on Io just because it is always mixing...turning inside out--if the model holds.

I think Europa's water is absolutely sterile.

In terms of organics:

I have long held the opinion that life needs mechanical forcing. The wind-sculptures of Mars makes me wonder if a new form of abiogenesis can happen on worlds that you might not expect.

The romantic in me could see new life perhaps from a world we think of as dying....being transplanted here by panspermia... maybe back and forth for awhile.

It that is the case--there's your great filter.

Abiogenesis via pinball.
 
I am the exact opposite on the case of Io having life publiusr, it is deep inside Jupiters radiation zone so any life that forms on Io would be irradiated as well as roasted due to the heavy volcanic activity as well.
 
Another potential killer lake in Africa, from Anton Petrov:


Hello and welcome! My name is Anton and in this video, we will talk about the killer lake in Africa that one day could cause a major disaster in the regionNote: this is an older unreleased video that I dug out from the archives. My voice is gone this week so enjoy this older gem while I recover.​
Links:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazukuhttps://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazuku&v=IpV7YdZWJ7c
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limnic_...https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...ipedia.org/wiki/Limnic_eruption&v=IpV7YdZWJ7c
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Mo...https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev....wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Monoun&v=IpV7YdZWJ7c
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Ny...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Kivuhttps://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Kivu&v=IpV7YdZWJ7c


0:00 Killer lake disaster - mazuku
1:00 Lake Monoun and Lake Nyos
2:35 What probably happened and how it works
6:50 Lake Kivu - the ticking time bomb
8:35 Possible solution to the limnic eruption
10:10 Conclusions


#earth #science #lake
 

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