Damond Benningfield

Austin

Freelance Science Writer at Freelance

Writer and Producer at StarDate

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Articles

Scientists Strive to Explain the Strange Weather on Other Planets

2 months ago | smithsonianmag.com | Damond Benningfield

What the swirling storms on alien worlds can tell us about the climate on Earth. A somewhat alarming new phrase entered the American lexicon when parts of the United States were plunged into an especially bitter deep freeze in January 2014: “polar vortex.” News reports cast the polar vortex as a previously unknown phenomenon that had suddenly descended upon the country.
Lunar Ice Might Be Easier to Reach Than We Thought

2 months ago | eos.org | Damond Benningfield

Past lunar missions have detected evidence of large ice deposits in permanently shadowed regions near the Moon’s south pole. Such ice could provide astronauts with drinking water, oxygen, and rocket propellants, reducing the cost of lunar operations. But new research has found that astronauts might not have to dig very deep or journey especially close to the Moon’s poles to find water ice.
Cinturones polvorientos ofrecen una visión más clara de la formación de exoplanetas

2 months ago | eos.org | Damond Benningfield

This is an authorized translation of an Eos article. Esta es una traducción al español autorizada de un artículo de Eos. Los cinturones polvorientos de escombros provenientes del nacimiento de estrellas son extensos y dinámicos, alimentados por colisiones frecuentes entre exocometas y agitados por la gravedad de planetas cercanos, según un estudio reciente publicado en Astronomy & Astrophysics. Los hallazgos ofrecen nuevas perspectivas sobre el proceso de formación planetaria.
A Super Speedy Star May Be Streaking Through Our Galaxy

Mar 10, 2025 | eos.org | Damond Benningfield

A small star with a planet companion appears to be on a high-speed trip around the center of the Milky Way and could be destined to escape the galaxy. If confirmed, the system would be the first “hypervelocity” star-and-exoplanet combo yet seen, raising questions about how a star could maintain its grip on a planet as they’re both booted from the galaxy’s core.
Dusty Belts Provide Clearer Insights into Exoplanet Formation

Feb 18, 2025 | eos.org | Damond Benningfield

Dusty belts of debris from the birth of stars are wide and dynamic, fed by frequent collisions between exocomets and stirred by the gravity of nearby planets, according to a recent study published in Astronomy & Astrophysics. The findings offer new insights into the planet-building process. The belts are analogous to the solar system’s Kuiper Belt, a doughnut-shaped zone beyond the orbit of Neptune that holds hundreds of millions of icy bodies.
Straightening Out Uranus’s Magnetosphere

Dec 6, 2024 | eos.org | Damond Benningfield

Uranus is a “sideways” planet. It’s tilted at a little more than 90°, so it rolls along in its orbit like a giant blue-green bowling ball. And planetary scientists may have had sideways ideas about Uranus for almost 4 decades. A new study published in Nature Astronomy suggests that the planet’s magnetosphere probably isn’t as odd as reported by the Voyager 2 spacecraft during its 1986 flyby.
Earth May Survive the Sun’s Demise

Nov 4, 2024 | eos.org | Damond Benningfield

Earth’s future is bleak. At best, our planet will become a burned-out cinder as the Sun expands at the end of its life. At worst, it will be engulfed by the Sun, leaving no trace that it ever existed. Astronomers have found a clue as to which path Earth might follow in a star system about 4,300 light-years away. There, a rocky planet orbits the remains of a once Sun-like star at a distance similar to where Earth could park if it survives our own star’s death throes.
Massive dying star has 'boiling' bubbles 75 times the size of the Sun

Oct 10, 2024 | zmescience.com | Damond Benningfield

The outer layers of most stars are like a pot of boiling water, with giant bubbles known as convection cells transporting energy and hot gases from deep inside the star to the surface. Bubbles on the Sun are as big as Texas, and they percolate to the surface and fall again over a period of a few minutes. Astronomers have now measured both the size and cadence of bubbles on a star other than the Sun for the first time. The star, R Doradus, is a red giant roughly 350 times the Sun’s diameter.
ALMA Watches the Surface of a Star “Boil”

Oct 10, 2024 | eos.org | Damond Benningfield

The outer layers of most stars are like a pot of boiling water, with giant bubbles known as convection cells transporting energy and hot gases from deep inside the star to the surface. Bubbles on the Sun are as big as Texas, and they percolate to the surface and fall again over a period of a few minutes. Astronomers have now measured both the size and cadence of bubbles on a star other than the Sun for the first time. The star, R Doradus, is a red giant roughly 350 times the Sun’s diameter.
Curiosity Finds Clues of a Cold, Wet Mars Billions of Years Ago

Aug 21, 2024 | zmescience.com | Damond Benningfield |Tibi Puiu

Sediments discovered by NASA’s Curiosity rover in Gale Crater imply that early Mars was wet and cold, according to a recent study that compared Martian samples to similar soils on Earth. The finding could inform whether the Red Planet was once habitable.