Early solar system articles from across Nature Portfolio

Here, authors study boulders’ fractures on S-type asteroid, Dimorphos, and show that their size-frequency distribution and orientation are consistent with formation through thermal fatigue. Such fractures seem to propagate horizontally much faster (~kyr) than normal to the boulder’s surface (~Myr).

The melting behaviour of Earth’s primitive mantle was strongly sensitive to changes in oxygen fugacity, according to high-pressure experiments on pyrolite under different redox conditions.

The Moon’s primordial solidification is believed to have produced a layer of dense ilmenite cumulates beneath the crust. Remnants of this layer have now been detected under the lunar nearside.

Cosmic dust contains all the elements needed for life but has previously been considered too rare to have acted as a ‘fertilizer’ for prebiotic chemistry. Now, using a combination of astrophysical and geological models, it is revealed that cosmic dust could have gently accumulated on the surface of early Earth in sufficient quantities to promote the chemical reactions that led to first life.

Twenty years ago, the Spirit and Opportunity rovers landed on Mars. Over the next 15 years, they showed us a planet that was warmer and wetter — and capable of sustaining life — that we now take as read.

It’s been an eventful year for robotic missions. From probes of Solar System bodies to large-scale cosmic structures, advances in our understanding of the formation and evolution of the Universe gather speed.

Carbonates are key minerals for understanding fluids and their interactions with near-surface environments. Ashley King explores their significance on Earth, and beyond.

Giant impacts can hit Venus harder than Earth in the end stages of planetary formation, super-heating Venus’s core. Slow escape of that heat drives long-lived surface volcanic activity.