Planetary Science News

The Urvara basin on Ceres. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA.

Dawn Detects Organics and Salts in Giant Crater on Ceres

Feb 23, 2022 by Sergio Prostak

Using the Framing Camera (FC) and the Visible and Infrared Spectrometer (VIR) aboard NASA’s Dawn spacecraft, planetary researchers have spotted bright...

Four possible domains of planetary intelligence: (a) on a planet with an immature biosphere (such as the Earth during the Archean Eon) there are insufficient feedback loops between life and geophysical coupled systems to exert strong co-evolution; (b) on a planet with a mature biosphere (such as Earth after the Proterozoic) the biosphere exerts strong forcing on the geophysical state establishing full co-evolution of the entire system; this feedback may provide some degree of long-term stabilizing (i.e. Gaian) modulations for the full system; (c) on a planet with an immature technosphere (represented by the current Anthropocene Earth) feedbacks from technological activity produce strong enough forcing on the coupled planetary system to drive it into new dynamical states; these forcings however are unconstrained by intention relative to the health of the civilization producing the technology; (d) on a planet with a mature technosphere, feedback loops between technological activity and biogeochemical and biogeophysical states have been intentionally modified to ensure maximum stability and productivity of the full system; alongside each planetary image, we show a schematic atmospheric spectrum; an immature biosphere would show an atmosphere mostly in equilibrium dominated perhaps by carbon dioxide (CO2); in a mature biosphere life would have changed atmospheric chemistry leading to a highly non-equilibrium state such as perhaps high concentrations of oxygen (O2); in an immature technosphere new ‘pollutant’ species appear, such as CFCs, while industrial activities such as combustion may alter the abundance of other pre-existing gases like CO2 and methane; in a mature technosphere all atmospheric constituents may have their concentrations modified to produce long-term stable and productive states for the full (civilization + biosphere) system; this is represented via a range of possible peaks for different constituents. Image credit: Frank et al., doi: 10.1017/S147355042100029X.

Can Planets Be Intelligent?

Feb 22, 2022 by News Staff

Conventionally, intelligence is seen as a property of individuals. However, it is also known to be a property of collectives. Examples include collective-decision-making...

Psyche Isn’t Pure Iron Asteroid, New Research Suggests

Feb 16, 2022 by News Staff

Observations of an asteroid group indicate that they may have metal-rich surfaces, but those asteroids with measured densities are about half as dense...

Three prominent features on Arrokoth now have official names. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

Arrokoth’s Prominent Features Given Official Names

Feb 16, 2022 by News Staff

The Kuiper Belt object Arrokoth was the target of the January 1, 2019 flyby by NASA’s New Horizons mission. Three prominent features on Arrokoth now...

When flying past Venus on July 11, 2020, the WISPR instrument onboard Parker Solar Probe detected a bright rim around the edge of the planet that may be nightglow. The prominent dark feature in the center of the image is Aphrodite Terra, the largest highland region on the Venusian surface. Bright streaks in WISPR, such as the ones seen here, are typically caused by a combination of cosmic rays, sunlight reflected by grains of space dust, and particles of material expelled from the spacecraft’s structures after impact with those dust grains. The number of streaks varies along the orbit or when the spacecraft is traveling at different speeds, and scientists are still in discussion about the specific origins of the streaks here. The dark spot appearing on the lower portion of Venus is an artifact from the WISPR instrument. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory / Naval Research Laboratory / Guillermo Stenborg / Brendan Gallagher.

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe Captures Stunning Images of Venus’ Night Side

Feb 10, 2022 by News Staff

During two gravity-assist flybys on July 11, 2020 and February 20, 2021, the Wide-Field Imager for Parker Solar Probe (WISPR) imager on board NASA’s...

This infrared image, taken by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, shows an aurora at the southern pole of Saturn. Image credit: NASA / Cassini / VIMS Team / University of Arizona / University of Leicester / JPL / ASI.

Weather Drives Saturn’s Powerful Aurorae, Planetary Scientists Say

Feb 9, 2022 by News Staff

Saturn is unique among planets observed to date in that some of its aurorae are generated by swirling winds within its atmosphere, and not just from the...

This image from ESA’s Trace Gas Orbiter shows a giant impact crater in Acidalia Planitia on Mars. Image credit: ESA / CaSSIS / CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO.

Trace Gas Orbiter Spots ‘Tree Stump’ Crater on Mars

Feb 2, 2022 by News Staff

ESA’s Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) has spotted an ice-rich impact crater in Acidalia Planitia, a Martian plain between the Tharsis volcanic province and Arabia...

This image from the Context Camera onboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows Bosporos Planum on Mars; the white specks are salt deposits found within a dry channel; the largest impact crater in the scene is nearly 1.5 km (one mile) across. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS.

Water Flowed on Martian Surface as Recently as Two Billion Years Ago, Study Suggests

Jan 27, 2022 by News Staff

It’s commonly believed that Martian liquid water evaporated about 3 billion years ago, but a duo of planetary scientists from Caltech and Johns Hopkins...

Mattei et al. studied the antifreeze properties of exotic salts that exist on Mars. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / USGS / SwRI.

Brine-Ice Mixtures Exist beneath Martian South Polar Cap: Study

Jan 26, 2022 by News Staff

In 2018, the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding (MARSIS) instrument onboard ESA’s Mars Express orbiter found evidence of liquid...

This image shows a triple crater in Noachis Terra, Mars. The largest crater measures 45 km across, and the smallest 28 km. There are also signs of other sizeable craters, such as the round patches of sunken surface seen to the top right and bottom left. This image comprises data gathered by ESA’s Mars Express using its High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on August 6, 2020. This image was created using data from the nadir and color channels of the HRSC. The nadir channel is aligned perpendicular to the surface of Mars, as if looking straight down at the surface. North is to the right. Image credit: ESA / DLR / FU Berlin / CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO.

Study: Frequency of Asteroid Impacts in Inner Solar System Constant over Past 600 Million Years

Jan 21, 2022 by News Staff

Using a novel crater detection algorithm, which automatically counts the visible impact craters from a high-resolution image, a team of planetary researchers...

Mimas’ surface, like the surfaces of most of the other major Saturnian moons without atmospheres, is not pure ice but contains some dark impurities; the relatively dark markings appear along the lower portion of the walls of the 130-km-wide Herschel Crater (the peak in the middle of the crater is about as tall as Mount Everest; the impact that made it likely almost destroyed the moon) and some of the smaller craters; scientists interpret this darkening as evidence for the gradual concentration of impurities from evaporating icy materials in areas where the dark impurities slide slowly down the crater wall. Image credit: NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute.

Saturn’s Moon Mimas Hosts Global Ocean, New Study Suggests

Jan 20, 2022 by News Staff

Mimas, the smallest and innermost of Saturn’s eight main moons, may be warm enough to harbor a global, liquid water ocean beneath a 24-31-km (15-19-mile)...

A selfie taken by NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 2291 (January 15, 2019) at the ‘Rock Hall’ drill site, located on Vera Rubin Ridge. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS.

Curiosity’s Samples from Martian Crater Strongly Depleted in Carbon-13, Researchers Say

Jan 18, 2022 by News Staff

An analysis of carbon isotopes in sediment samples taken by NASA’s Curiosity rover from Gale crater, Mars, leave planetary researchers with three plausible...

An artist’s impression of the super-Neptune exoplanet TOI-1728b. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Computer Simulations Shed New Light on Gas Giant Formation

Jan 17, 2022 by News Staff

Solar system’s gas giants, such as Jupiter, Saturn, and massive exoplanets, were formed via the gas accretion onto the solid cores, each with a mass...

An artist’s conception of the cross section of a super-Earth with the National Ignition Facility target chamber superimposed over the mantle, looking into the core. Image credit: John Jett / Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Rocky Exoplanets with Four to Six Times Earth’s Mass Have Longest Dynamos, Study Suggests

Jan 13, 2022 by News Staff

The pressure and temperature conditions at which iron melts are important for rocky planets because they determine the size of the liquid metal core, an...

$Possible scenarios of terrestrial planet formation: in the classic Wetherill-type model of oligarchic growth, the terrestrial planets formed by mutual collisions among Moon- to Mars-sized planetary embryos after the gas disk dissipated and accreted only a small fraction of CC planetesimals, which were scattered inward during Jupiter’s growth and/or putative migration; alternatively, the terrestrial planets may have formed within the lifetime of the gas disk by efficiently accreting ‘pebbles’ from the outer Solar System, which drift sunward through the disk due to gas drag; the two models differ in the amount of outer solar system material accreted by the terrestrial planets, which may be quantified using nucleosynthetic isotope anomalies. Image credit: Burkhardt et al., doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abj7601.$

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