Science News Roundup: Moon-forming region seen around planet in another solar system; Marsquakes reveal the anatomy of the Red Planet's interior

The findings disclosed on Thursday shed light on what had been a poorly understood internal structure of Earth's smaller neighbor and provided a few surprises as well as confirmation that the Red Planet's center is molten.

Following is a summary of current science news briefs.

Moon-forming region seen around planet in another solar system

Scientists for the first time have spotted a moon-forming region around a planet beyond our solar system - a Jupiter-like world surrounded by a disk of gas and dust massive enough that it could spawn three moons the size of the one orbiting Earth. The researchers used the ALMA observatory in Chile's Atacama desert to detect the disk of swirling material accumulating around one of two newborn planets seen orbiting a young star called PDS 70, located a relatively close 370 light years from Earth. A light year is the distance light travels in a year, about 5.9 trillion miles (9.5 trillion km).

Marsquakes reveal the anatomy of the Red Planet's interior

Seismic waves from quakes detected by NASA's robotic InSight lander have helped scientists decipher the anatomy of Mars, including the first estimates of the size of its large liquid metal core, thickness of its crust, and nature of its mantle. The findings disclosed on Thursday shed light on what had been a poorly understood internal structure of Earth's smaller neighbor and provided a few surprises as well as confirmation that the Red Planet's center is molten.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)