Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Planetary Sciences
A new method of assessing Climate Sensitivity.
Published: 2025-07-22
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Planetary Sciences
Abstract— The IPCC regards carbon dioxide as the most relevant driver of climate warming and their Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) refines this to a likely range of 2.5°C to 4.0°C and a very likely range of 2.0°C to 5.0°C for climate sensitivity to a doubling of present levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide. Since this is a very large range the need exists to find a method to better quantify climate [...]
A Search for Life in the Universe Advances Life on Earth
Published: 2025-07-21
Subjects: Planetary Biogeochemistry, Planetary Geochemistry, Planetary Sciences
Astrobiology, while traditionally focused on understanding the origin of life on Earth and the potential for life elsewhere, offers powerful tools and insights for addressing urgent challenges on our planet. This perspective, written by early career researchers, calls for a deliberate integration of astrobiological research with applied sciences in environmental engineering, biotechnology, and [...]
The case for continuing VIPER - a critical milestone on the journey back to the Moon
Published: 2025-07-02
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Planetary Sciences
NASA's VIPER mission was designed to explore the Moon's south pole, with a primary objective of identifying and characterising volatile compounds such as water ice. Despite having been fully built and having passed all preflight environmental testing, the mission was cancelled by NASA in July 2024, and the rover remains in storage. In this paper, we outline why it remains crucial that a route to [...]
Earth hit twice - The hypothesis of planetary rearrangement of the lithosphere by impact and interference waves
Published: 2025-04-26
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Planetary Geology, Planetary Geophysics and Seismology, Planetary Sciences
This study presents the impact-antipodal-interference hypothesis as a new model of planetary-scale crustal deformation. By analysing the distribution and properties of three megastructures - the Mariana Trench, the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, and the Amazon Basin - it is demonstrated that their formation may be linked to large-scale cosmic impacts and the seismic wave interference occurring within [...]
A Systems-Level Approach to Extracting Oxygen from Lunar Regolith via Molten Regolith Electrolysis
Published: 2025-02-11
Subjects: Aerospace Engineering, Engineering, Other Planetary Sciences, Planetary Sciences
We present a top-level architecture for extracting up to 10 metric tonnes per year of oxygen from lunar regolith by means of Molten Regolith Electrolysis (MRE) using less than 30 kW from vertical solar arrays and a regolith excavator. This System Integration Study identifies specific technology which could be engineered together in the near term into a single system and lander provided focused [...]
From Magma Chambers to Magma Oceans: A Unified Model for the Thermo-chemical-mechanical Evolution of Magma Bodies
Published: 2025-02-06
Subjects: Applied Mathematics, Computer Sciences, Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Planetary Sciences
Magma bodies play a critical role in Earth's geological evolution, influencing volcanic activity, crustal differentiation, and planetary-scale processes. Understanding their thermo-chemical and mechanical evolution requires models that integrate fluid dynamics, phase changes, and chemical transport. This study presents a new numerical model that couples these processes using a multi-phase, [...]
Trace Element Analyses of Plagioclase from Troctolite 76535 and Implications for Mg-suite Petrogenesis
Published: 2025-01-21
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Planetary Geology, Planetary Sciences
Certain Mg-suite samples display enrichment in incompatible elements, likely resulting from the assimilation of the material that crystallized at the very late stages of magma ocean (ur-KREEP). This study uses trace element analyses of plagioclase separates from sample 76535 to estimate the Rare Earth Element (REE) concentration of the Mg-suite parental liquid and assess the extent of [...]
Grain size evolution in mantle convection models promotes continuous rather than episodic tectonics
Published: 2025-01-06
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Planetary Sciences
A long-persistent caveat of geodynamic models with Earth-like tectonic behavior is the need of an ‘ad hoc’ yield stress lower than any laboratory-inferred rock strength. Grain size reduction due to dynamic recrystallization provides local weak zones in the lithosphere thereby promoting lithospheric breakdown and continuous mobile-lid tectonics. Grain growth should instead (re-)strengthen the [...]
2027: Waking the AKU-- A Cosmic Hyperobject View of the Ancient Giant Palm Forest on Rapa Nui
Published: 2025-01-06
Subjects: Astrophysics and Astronomy, Earth Sciences, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Sciences, Forest Sciences, Other Astrophysics and Astronomy, Other Environmental Sciences, Other Plant Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Planetary Sciences, Plant Sciences, The Sun and the Solar System
Can a repeating climate event be termed as a cosmic hyperobject? Even if it is dynamically changing within hundreds of thousands of years? At the center of this paper is the science: observable data, 15,000 years of climate change on Rapa Nui. Reaching into the past however we begin with a much broader mathematical view from the eyes of Milankovitch theories of the cosmos that stretches a million [...]
Evaluation of the InSightSeers and DART Boarders mission observer programmes
Published: 2025-01-04
Subjects: Education, Higher Education, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Planetary Sciences
Encouraging diversity in planetary science requires making a particular effort to bring a broader range of people onto the mission teams that are the backbone of the field. Observer programmes, which offer early-career researchers the chance to embed within a mission team during a science meeting, are one way of doing this. Here we present a quantitative analysis of the effectiveness of two [...]
Viewing Lobate Patterns on Mars and Earth as Climate Modulated Fluid-like Instabilities
Published: 2024-11-14
Subjects: Planetary Sciences
Lobate features found on high-latitude slopes on Mars resemble terrestrial cold-climate soil patterns known as solifluction lobes. Whether this provides evidence of freeze thaw processes on Mars or pattern equifinality is up for debate. Guided by recently developed theory for solifluction pattern formation inspired by fluid instabilities, here we compare HiRISE imagery of Martian lobes with a [...]
Al Hawi, a 4-km-wide impact structure in northern Saudi Arabia
Published: 2024-09-23
Subjects: Astrophysics and Astronomy, Earth Sciences, Geology, Geomorphology, Other Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Physics, Planetary Geology, Planetary Sciences, The Sun and the Solar System
The northern region of Saudi Arabia hosts several impact craters and structures. This paper describes the discovery of a 4-km-wide complex impact structure located in the paleozoic sedimentary rocks of northern Saudi Arabia 210 kilometers north east of the city of Tabuk. The impact structure is composed of a central peak displaying intense folding and shock metamorphism surrounded by an inner [...]
Gravity affects magma-induced crustal deformation: comparing laccoliths on the Moon, Mars, and Earth
Published: 2024-09-21
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Planetary Sciences
Dome-shaped, uplifted surface areas and associated fractures on Mars and the Moon are inferred to result from the shallow emplacement of magma intrusions. This inference originates from analog observations of Earth’s volcanic and igneous plumbing systems. Computational models help estimate those inferred magma bodies' geometry and emplacement depth. Such models have not yet simulated the dynamic [...]
Array-based seismic measurements of OSIRIS-REx's re-entry
Published: 2024-08-23
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Planetary Sciences
The return home of the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft in September 2023 marked only the fifth time that an artificial object entered the Earth's atmosphere at interplanetary velocities. Although rare, such events serve as valuable analogues for natural meteoroid re-entries; enabling study of hypersonic dynamics, shockwave generation, and acoustic-to-seismic coupling. Here, we report on the signatures [...]
Reduced contribution of sulfur to the mass extinction associated with the Chicxulub impact event
Published: 2024-08-14
Subjects: Planetary Sciences
The Chicxulub asteroid impact event at the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) boundary ~66 Myr ago is widely considered responsible for the mass extinction event leading to the demise of the non-avian dinosaurs. Short-term cooling due to massive release of climate-active agents is hypothesized to have been crucial, with S-bearing gases originating from the target rock vaporization considered a main [...]