Planetary Science Institute

Viscosity of NaAlSi3O8−H2O fluids and implications for arc magmatism

Water plays a crucial role in the transport properties of silicate liquids and is especially important in subduction-zone magma source regions where conditions promote complete miscibility between water and silicate melts. However, accurately tracing the movement of fluids and vo...

Thermal bottlenecks constrain early-life survival of native fish in regulated rivers

Climate change is reshaping thermal regimes worldwide, threatening species whose early development depends on narrow temperature ranges. Yet directly linking warming to reproductive failure in wild populations remains intractable, particularly in aquatic ecosystems. We developed...

Little Red Dots host Black Hole Stars: A unified family of gas-reddened AGN revealed by JWST/NIRSpec spectroscopy

Abstract We construct and characterise a sample of 146 little red dots (LRDs) across 2.0 < z < 9.3, selecting all sources with v-shaped UV-optical continua from JWST NIRSpec/PRISM spectra and compact morphologies in NIRCam/F444W imaging. We show that LRD continuum spectra are wel...

The effects of CO2-rock interaction on the failure mode of clay-rich sandstone

Understanding how rock formations respond to CO₂ injection is critical for geological carbon storage. This study examines the impact of CO₂-rock interaction on the failure mode of clay-rich Tuscaloosa sandstone. To simulate CO₂-rock interaction in the subsurface, we conducted CO...

Comparative Analysis of Ion and Electron Contributions to Ionospheric Ionization at Auroral and Subauroral Latitudes

Abstract Electron and proton precipitation into the nightside ionosphere is a key process in magnetosphere–ionosphere coupling. Although auroral electron precipitation at –10 keV is traditionally considered the main driver of auroral emissions, recent studies show that keV electr...

Wavelength Requirements for Life Detection via Reflected Light Spectroscopy of Rocky Exoplanets

Searching for signs of life is a primary goal of the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO). However, merely detecting oxygen, methane, or other widely discussed biosignatures is insufficient evidence for a biosphere. In parallel with biosignature detection, exoplanet life detection...

The distribution and origin of Mercury’s crustal magnetization

Mercury is the only planet other than Earth to possess both a global magnetic field that arises from a core dynamo, and a crustal magnetic field that arises from magnetized rocks. Crustal fields provide unique records of a planet’s interior state and evolution because magnetizati...

Ryugu and Bennu preserve primordial isotopic heterogeneity absent from the meteorite record

Ivuna-type (CI) carbonaceous chondrites are commonly used as proxies for the composition of the planet-forming disk because their chemical abundances resemble those of the solar photosphere. However, their isotopic uniformity may reflect pervasive alteration and isotopic averagin...

A joint geophysical-geochemical deep-mantle zoning map beneath East Africa and the Indian Ocean

Geochemical signatures of hotspot lavas suggest that their mantle sources are compositionally distinct, but their source locations remain elusive. Mapping hotspots to their deep origins is complicated by the presence of interconnected, low–seismic velocity networks in the mantle,...

Near-total loss of buttressing stresses observed on Pine Island Ice Shelf, West Antarctica

Ice shelves, the floating extensions of the Antarctic Ice Sheet, provide critical buttressing stresses that resist the seaward flow of ice and help set the position of the grounding line, where the ice goes afloat. As buttressing stresses are diminished by thinning or fracturing...

Evidence for heavy iron isotopic enrichment at Earth’s core-mantle boundary

Ocean island basalts exhibit heavier and more variable iron isotopic compositions (δ56Fe) than mid-ocean ridge basalts, but the origin of these signatures remains unresolved. Here we investigate whether Fe-rich ultralow-velocity zones at the core-mantle boundary can provide a dee...

Mineralogy and thermobarometry of marbles: constraints on retrogression and hydrothermal imprint in a polymetamorphic terrane (Făgăraș Unit, Southern Carpathians, Romania)

Abstract This thermobarometry study employs calcite-dolomite solvus thermometry and thermodynamic pseudosections applied to marbles in the Făgăraș Unit, the uppermost unit of the Variscan metamorphic basement of the Alpine Supragetic units, Central Southern Carpathians. The marbl...

Selection in the City: The Supply of Trees to Baltimore’s Urban Forest

Domestic selection creates the assemblages of organisms found in human-dominated environments, and urban forestry is a useful illustration of this process in action. In this study, we aim to understand how the process of domestic selection influences the nursery supply chain of t...