Stephen Kane

Mars's gravity may help control Earth’s cycle of ice ages

tomwt — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 18:20:07 +0000

Mars's gravity may help control Earth’s cycle of ice ages tomwt Mon, 01/26/2026 - 10:20 More CNAS in the Media Leah Crane | New Scientist January 26, 2026

NEW SCIENTIST - Compared with Earth, Mars is tiny, yet it seems to have an outsized effect on our planet’s climate cycles. Similar small planets could affect the climates of worlds beyond our solar system, which we must begin to take into account when evaluating their potential habitability.

Stephen Kane at the University of California, Riverside, and his colleagues found this effect by running simulations of the influence Mars would have on Earth’s orbit if it were a different mass, from 100 times its actual mass to if it were gone entirely. “I came to this from a perspective of scepticism, actually, because I had trouble believing that Mars, which is only a tenth the mass of Earth, could have such a profound effect on Earth’s cycles, so that’s what motivated this study to turn that knob of Mars’s mass and see what happens,” says Kane.

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How Mars influences Earth’s climate

tomwt — Wed, 21 Jan 2026 17:33:21 +0000

How Mars influences Earth’s climate tomwt Wed, 01/21/2026 - 09:33 More CNAS in the Media Devika Rao | The Week US January 20, 2026

THE WEEK - Small but mighty, the red planet — our celestial neighbor — has made Earth’s climate what it is today. Mars’ gravitational pull serves as a stabilizing force for our home’s orbit, tilt and position from the sun. Without it, life could potentially have been a lot different from what we know today.

How does Mars’ gravity impact Earth?
Despite being approximately half the size of Earth and one-tenth its mass, Mars’ gravity has had a sizable effect on Earth’s climate, according to a study published in the journal Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. Specifically, the red planet is “quietly tugging on Earth’s orbit and shaping the cycles that drive long-term climate patterns here,” said a release about the study.

Earth’s climate is largely driven by Milankovitch cycles, which are “long-term variations in our planet’s orbit and tilt governed by the gravitational pull of other planets in the solar system,” said Space.com (a sister site of The Week). One cycle takes approximately 430,000 years and is largely affected by Venus and Jupiter. Mars has little to no effect on this cycle, originally leading scientists to believe that the planet did not have much pull on Earth’s climate. However, it turns out that Mars “punches above its weight,” said Stephen Kane, the study leader and a professor of planetary astrophysics at the University of California, Riverside, in the release. Subtracting Mars from the equation significantly affected two other climate cycles, one of them 10,000 years long and the other 2.3 million years long. “When you remove Mars, those cycles vanish,” Kane said. “And if you increase the mass of Mars, they get shorter and shorter because Mars is having a bigger effect.”

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Mars can actually trigger ice ages on Earth despite being millions of miles away

tomwt — Tue, 20 Jan 2026 22:13:43 +0000

Mars can actually trigger ice ages on Earth despite being millions of miles away tomwt Tue, 01/20/2026 - 14:13 More CNAS in the Media Jordan Strickler | ZME Science January 18, 2026

ZME SCIENCE - Mars is about half Earth’s size and roughly a tenth its mass — not really the sort of planet you’d expect to leave fingerprints on Earth’s climate history. Yet a new set of simulations by an international group of researchers suggests the Red Planet helps shape some of the slow, repeating orbital patterns like Earth’s ice ages and other long-term climate swings.

The work, published in the Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific explores simple “what ifs?”: What happens to Earth’s Milankovitch cycles if you dial Mars’ mass down to nearly nothing? Likewise, how about if you crank it up far beyond its current weight?

Turning the Mars “knob”
Stephen Kane, a professor of planetary astrophysics at the University of California, Riverside and study author, said he had his doubts to begin with. Recent studies have tied deep-ocean sediment layers to Mars-linked cycles, implying that the planet’s gravitational nudges show up in Earth’s geologic record.

He just didn’t expect the weight of the impact.

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Mars has a massive impact on Earth’s climate, new study suggests

tomwt — Fri, 16 Jan 2026 19:38:31 +0000

Mars has a massive impact on Earth’s climate, new study suggests tomwt Fri, 01/16/2026 - 11:38 More CNAS in the Media Lydia Amazouz | Dailygalaxy.com January 16, 2026

DAILY GALAXY - Mars, long admired for its rusty hue and alien deserts, may play a far greater role in shaping life on Earth than once believed. A new study published in the Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific reveals that Mars’ gravitational influence subtly but significantly affects Earth’s climate cycles, planetary tilt, and even the evolution of life.

A Subtle Force With Massive Impact
In a discovery that surprised even the researchers, the team found that Mars may be “punching above its weight,” influencing Earth’s long-term climate stability far more than its modest size suggests.

“I knew Mars had some effect on Earth, but I assumed it was tiny,” said Stephen Kane of the University of California, Riverside, in a statement. “I’d thought its gravitational influence would be too small to easily observe within Earth’s geologic history. I kind of set out to check my own assumptions.”

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Mars may help set the timing of Earth’s ice ages

tomwt — Thu, 15 Jan 2026 17:24:20 +0000

Mars may help set the timing of Earth’s ice ages tomwt Thu, 01/15/2026 - 09:24 More CNAS in the Media Jordan Joseph | Earth.com January 14, 2026

EARTH.COM - New simulations suggest Mars helps set a 2.4 million-year rhythm in Earth’s orbit that can steer the timing of ice-ages.

Scientists recently tested whether a small planet could leave a detectable trace in deep-time climate records.

Testing a planetary hunch
Computer runs allowed the experts to switch planets on and off, turning the solar system into a controlled test. The simulations were built at the University of California, Riverside (UC Riverside).

Stephen R. Kane, Ph.D., a professor of planetary astrophysics, started out doubtful and checked his own assumptions while modeling how planets tug each other.

“I knew Mars had some effect on Earth, but I assumed it was tiny,” said Kane.

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Without Mars, Earth’s ice-age rhythm would change, simulations show

tomwt — Wed, 14 Jan 2026 18:00:50 +0000

Without Mars, Earth’s ice-age rhythm would change, simulations show tomwt Wed, 01/14/2026 - 10:00 More CNAS in the Media John Anderer | Study Finds January 14, 2026

STUDYFINDS - Earth would certainly be different without its rusty red neighbor. No Mars in the night sky, no target for future human exploration. Now, however, scientists say this scenario would result in much bigger changes than simply depriving humanity of a nearby planet to study.

According to the research, this scenario would fundamentally alter our planet’s climate history. Computer simulations spanning 100 million years reveal that Mars, despite being half Earth’s size and 140 million miles away, influences the pacing of ice ages through long-term gravitational interactions.

Scientists at the University of California, Riverside, ran 22 different scenarios adjusting Mars’ mass from complete absence to ten times its current size. When they removed Mars entirely, one of Earth’s major climate rhythms disappeared.

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Without Mars, humans and animals could look entirely different. Scientist says the Red Planet shapes our Ice Ages

tomwt — Tue, 13 Jan 2026 16:12:58 +0000

Without Mars, humans and animals could look entirely different. Scientist says the Red Planet shapes our Ice Ages tomwt Tue, 01/13/2026 - 08:12 More CNAS in the Media Iain Todd | BBC Sky at Night Magazine January 13, 2026

BBC SKY AT NIGHT MAGAZINE - You might think that Earth's influence on your life is minimal at best.

Beyond often appearing like a bright red 'star' in the sky, what has Mars ever done for us?

Quite a lot, it turns out. In fact, Mars could play a huge role in shaping the tilt of our planet and influencing the length of its Ice Ages.

Without Mars, the story of evolution on planet Earth might have played out rather differently.

Humans and animals might not exist, or might have evolved to look entirely different.

Exploring Mars's effect on Earth
Mars is about half the size of Earth and about one tenth its mass. That makes it a small, relatively light planet, in the grand scheme of things.

But a new study suggests that, as Mars orbits the Sun, it tugs on planet Earth, affecting our own orbit around the Sun and shaping our geological history.

Mars could even be shaping the cycles that drive long-term climate patterns on Earth, including Ice Ages.

Stephen Kane, professor of planetary astrophysics at the University of California Riverside, USA, decided to look at studies showing how Earth’s ancient climate patterns are influenced by gravitational nudges from Mars.

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Exoplanet discoveries pass the 6,000 mark, shedding light on how our solar system compares with the rest of the universe

tomwt — Wed, 24 Sep 2025 22:38:03 +0000

Exoplanet discoveries pass the 6,000 mark, shedding light on how our solar system compares with the rest of the universe tomwt Wed, 09/24/2025 - 15:38 More CNAS in the Media Margherita Bassi | Smithsonian Magazine September 23, 2025

SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE - Just decades after the first exoplanets were identified, our database of the distant worlds—monitored by the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute—has breached a new threshold. Now, astronomers have officially identified more than 6,000 planets outside our solar system.

“This milestone represents decades of cosmic exploration driven by NASA space telescopes—exploration that has completely changed the way humanity views the night sky,” Shawn Domagal-Goldman, acting director of the astrophysics division at NASA headquarters, says in a statement. It also comes just 30 years after researchers confirmed the first exoplanet: a “hot Jupiter” world called 51 Pegasi b, which orbits a star similar to our sun.

No single exoplanet has been logged as the official 6,000th discovery, because scientists around the world add confirmed planets to the list on a rolling basis. Some 8,000 other exoplanet candidates have already been discovered but are still waiting to be officially confirmed and recognized.

...

Stephen Kane, a planetary geophysicist at the University of California, Riverside, tells Forbes’ Bruce Dorminey that exoplanets’ most important contribution to planetary science is their vast numbers that allow for a broad range of statistical analyses on mass, size, age and other traits.

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NASA’s extrasolar planet tally officially hits the 6,000 mark

tomwt — Wed, 24 Sep 2025 22:18:30 +0000

NASA’s extrasolar planet tally officially hits the 6,000 mark tomwt Wed, 09/24/2025 - 15:18 More CNAS in the Media Bruce Dorminey | Forbes September 18, 2025

FORBES - NASA reports that its official tally of extrasolar planets has hit the 6,000 mark. This thirty-year milestone has been in the works since two little known Swiss astronomers, Michel Mayor and Didiez Queloz, first detected 51 Pegasi b.

The first of the so-called “hot Jupiters” to be detected, “51 Peg” is a gas giant planet half the mass of our own Jupiter on a crazily short 4.2-day orbit around its parent star, 51 Pegasus, some 50 light years away. In contrast, our planet Mercury, which is scorchingly hot itself, orbits the sun in just under 88 days.

Confirmed planets are added to the count on a rolling basis by scientists from around the world, so no single planet is considered the 6,000th entry, NASA says. The number is monitored by NASA’s Exoplanet Science Institute in Pasadena, with 8,000 more awaiting confirmation, notes the space agency.

The most important thing that exoplanets bring to the planetary science table is vast numbers, Stephen Kane, a planetary geophysicist at the University of California in Riverside, tells me via email. This enables a statistical analysis of planetary properties across various axes, such as planet mass, size, composition, age, and formation processes, Kane tells me.

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Why Is Venus Hell and Earth an Eden?

tomwt — Tue, 16 Sep 2025 15:23:47 +0000

Why Is Venus Hell and Earth an Eden? tomwt Tue, 09/16/2025 - 08:23 More CNAS in the Media Robin George Andrews | Quanta Magazine September 15, 2025

QUANTA MAGAZINE - enus is arguably the worst place in the solar system. A cloak of carbon dioxide suffocates the planet, subjecting its surface to skull-crushing pressure. Sulfuric acid rains down through the sickly yellow sky but never reaches the lava-licked ground. Venus is so hot — hot enough to melt lead — that the acid rain evaporates as it’s falling.

The planet’s extreme inhospitality is at the heart of one of the most beguiling mysteries in planetary science. Venus and Earth formed at the same time, from the same geologic building blocks, in pretty much the same part of the solar system. They’re even the same size. So why is Venus a hellscape, and Earth a garden?

A common refrain in the scientific community is that Venus is just several steps ahead — that it represents the end state of all large rocky planets, including Earth. The hypothesis is that these planets eventually lose the ability to sequester planet-warming greenhouse gases in their geologic underbelly. When those gases then accumulate in the atmosphere, the world enters a runaway greenhouse state — like the boiling hot Venusian climate. “Over the years, we’d always heard about Venus being a preview into Earth’s future,” said Stephen Kane, a planetary astrophysicist at the University of California, Riverside.

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