Planetary Science News

Planetary Scientists Find Large Granite Formation on Moon’s Far Side

This illustration shows the Compton-Belkovich Volcanic Complex (CBVC) on the Moon’s far side and the boxed area indicated a large granite zone, which could not be picked up by topography. Image credit: Siegler et al., doi: 10.1038/s41586-023-06183-5.
Jul 5, 2023 by News Staff

The 50-km-diameter granitic system discovered below the far side feature known as Compton-Belkovich Volcanic Complex likely was formed from the cooling of molten lava that fed a volcano or volcanoes that erupted approximately 3.5 billion years ago. This illustration shows the Compton-Belkovich Volcanic Complex (CBVC) on the Moon’s far side and the boxed area indicated a large granite zone, which could not be picked up by topography. Image credit:...

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This image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows the Terra Sirenum region on Mars and its gullies. Image credit: NASA / JPL / University of Arizona.

Martian Gullies Could Have Been Formed by On-And-Off Periods of Liquid Meltwater

Jul 4, 2023 by News Staff

Some steep slopes on Mars have gullies with morphologies suggesting that they were formed by a liquid. However, the planet’s current climate is not conducive...

This image of Mars was taken with the Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph (IUVS) instrument onboard NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft in July 2022. Image credit: NASA / LASP / CU Boulder.

MAVEN Observes Mars in Ultraviolet Light

Jun 22, 2023 by News Staff

Planetary scientists using the Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph (IUVS) instrument onboard NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) spacecraft...

The surface of Europa looms large in this newly-reprocessed color view; image scale is 1.6 km per pixel; north on Europa is at right. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SETI Institute.

New Research Sheds More Light on Evolution of Europa’s Interior

Jun 19, 2023 by News Staff

Many planetary scientists studying Jupiter’s moon Europa assumed that it formed with a metallic core during or shortly after accretion. New research...

Saturn’s moon Enceladus with a plume. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SSI / Kevin M. Gill.

Phosphorus, Rare Building Block for Life, Discovered at Enceladus

Jun 15, 2023 by News Staff

Phosphorus has not previously been detected in oceans beyond those on Earth and this discovery provides a promising step forward in our understanding of...

An artistic conception of the early Earth. Image credit: Simone Marchi / NASA.

Study: Plate Tectonics is not a Requirement for Life to Originate on Earth-Like Planet

Jun 15, 2023 by News Staff

Plate tectonics is a fundamental factor in the sustained habitability of Earth, but its time of onset is unknown, with ages ranging from the Hadean to...

Images from Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) show a water vapor plume jetting from the south pole of Saturn’s moon Enceladus. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI / G. Villanueva, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / A. Pagan, STScI.

Webb Observes Enceladus’ Water Vapor Plume

Jun 2, 2023 by News Staff

As Enceladus orbits rapidly around Saturn with a period of only 1.37 Earth days, the ejected water vapor is spread along and around its orbit, forming...

This image from Mars Express’ High Resolution Stereo Camera shows the globe of Mars set against a dark background. The disk of the planet features yellow, orange, blue and green patches, all with an overall muted grey hue, representing the varying composition of the surface. Image credit: ESA / DLR / FU Berlin / G. Michael / CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO.

Watch First-Ever Livestream from Mars

Jun 2, 2023 by News Staff

On June 2, 2023, to celebrate the 20th birthday of ESA’s Mars Express, you’ll have the chance to get as close as it’s currently possible get to a...

An artist’s impression of the Hadean Earth: huge, impact-generated lava lakes coexisted with surface liquid water, under a thick greenhouse atmosphere sustained by lava outgassing. Image credit: Simone Marchi & Dan Durda, Southwest Research Institute.

Iron-Rich Meteoritic and Volcanic Particles May Have Promoted Origin of Life Reactions on Early Earth

May 26, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Precursors of the molecules needed for the origin of life may have been generated by chemical reactions promoted by meteoritic and volcanic particles approximately...

This Hubble image heralds the start of Saturn’s ‘spoke season’ with the appearance of two smudgy spokes in the B ring, on the left in the image. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Amy Simon, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / Alyssa Pagan, STScI.

Saturn’s Rings are No More Than Few Hundred Million Years Old, Scientists Say

May 16, 2023 by News Staff

Saturn’s ring system may well have formed when dinosaurs were still walking on the Earth, and will last only another few hundred million years at most,...

This image from ESA’s Mars Express shows the southern flanks of Ascraeus Mons, the second-tallest volcano on Mars. This image comprises data gathered by Mars Express’ High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on January 15, 2023. Image credit: ESA / DLR / FU Berlin / CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO.

ESA’s Mars Express Orbiter Sees Fissured Flanks of Mars’ Second-Tallest Volcano

May 15, 2023 by Natali Anderson

Ascraeus Mons is the northernmost and tallest of three prominent volcanoes found in the Tharsis region of Mars, a volcanic plateau in the planet’s western...

Castillo-Rogez et al. show that there likely is an ocean layer in four of Uranus’ major moons: Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, and Oberon; salty -- or briny -- oceans lie under the ice and atop layers of water-rich rock and dry rock; Miranda is too small to retain enough heat for an ocean layer. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Four Uranian Moons Host Subsurface Oceans, New Research Suggests

May 5, 2023 by News Staff

The five large moons of Uranus — Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, and Oberon — are important targets for future spacecraft missions. Studying...

This image of Shackleton crater was captured by NASA’s ShadowCam instrument aboard the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter. Image credit: NASA / KARI / ASU.

ShadowCam Captures Spectacular Photos of Moon’s South Polar Region

May 1, 2023 by News Staff

NASA’s ShadowCam instrument is flying with five other instruments aboard KARI’s Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO), also known as Danuri, which...

Gann et al. show that in principle it is possible to grow rice plants in MMS1 but levels of (Mg(ClO4)2) can be critical to both germination and growth; moreover, they presented that editing SnRK1a could potentially provide an approach to develop as table rice line that can germinate and grow in MMS1 with (Mg(ClO4)2). Image credit: Gann et al.

Genetically Modified Rice Could Actually Grow in Martian Regolith, New Study Suggests

Apr 27, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

One of the biggest challenges to growing food on Mars is the presence of perchlorate salts, which have been detected in the Martian regolith (soil) and...

This artist’s concept shows a cutaway of Mars, along with the paths of seismic waves from two separate marsquakes in 2021. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / University of Maryland.

InSight Detects Seismic Waves Traveling through Martian Liquid Core

Apr 25, 2023 by News Staff

Mars has a liquid iron alloy core at its center. Using seismic data gathered by NASA’s InSight lander, planetary scientists have made the first observations...

This view of Europa was captured by the JunoCam imager aboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft during the mission’s close flyby on September 29, 2022. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / MSSS / Kevin M. Gill.

Local Tectonic Activity Could Cause Landslides on Icy Satellites of Jupiter and Saturn

Apr 17, 2023 by News Staff

Intense tectonism is evident on many outer solar system satellites — such as Ganymede, Europa, and Enceladus — with some surface regions showing...

This composite image shows the Saturn Lyman-alpha bulge, an emission from hydrogen which is a persistent and unexpected excess detected by NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft, NASA’s Cassini probe, and the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope between 1980 and 2017. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Lotfi Ben-Jaffel, IAP & LPL.

Saturn’s Rings are Heating Gas Giant’s Upper Atmosphere, Astronomers Say

Mar 30, 2023 by News Staff

The most feasible explanation is that icy ring particles raining down onto Saturn’s atmosphere cause this heating, according to a team of astronomers...

This map shows shield volcanoes on Venus. Image credit: Rebecca Hahn, Washington University in St. Louis.

Venus is Home to At Least 85,000 Volcanoes, Planetary Researchers Say

Mar 30, 2023 by News Staff

There are many thousands of volcanoes on the surface of Venus. These volcanoes provide clues into the interior properties of the planet, properties that...

If the Moon has enough water, and if it’s reasonably convenient to access, future explorers might be able to use it as drinking water or to convert it into hydrogen and oxygen for rocket fuel or oxygen to breathe. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Impact Glass Beads from the Moon Contain Solar Wind-Derived Water, Study Shows

Mar 29, 2023 by News Staff

Scientists from China and the United States have analyzed the impact glass beads from a lunar soil sample returned by China’s Chang’e-5 mission. Asteroid...

An artist’s impression of the surface of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI.

Scientists Explain Why Jupiter’s and Saturn’s Icy Moons Have Extreme Radar Properties

Mar 23, 2023 by News Staff

The radar properties of icy satellites of Jupiter and Saturn commonly differ by more than an order of magnitude from those of rocky planets because of...

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