Planetary Science News

Schematic view of the propagation of seismic waves in the Martian crust and seismic conversions at the base of the discontinuity, at a depth of 10 km (6.2 miles). Image credit: IPGP.

NASA’s InSight Mission Detects Two Far-Side Marsquakes

Apr 27, 2022 by News Staff

In 2021, the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) — the seismometer placed on the surface of Mars by NASA’s Interior Exploration using...

Conceptual image of meteoroids delivering nucleobases to ancient Earth. The nucleobases are represented by structural diagrams with hydrogen atoms as white spheres, carbon as black, nitrogen as blue and oxygen as red. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / CI Lab / Dan Gallagher.

Key Components of DNA and RNA Found in Three Meteorites

Apr 26, 2022 by News Staff

Using state-of-the-art analytical techniques, researchers have detected diverse suites of nucleobases — including canonical base pairs (e.g., adenine-uracil,...

This view of Titan is among the last images NASA’s Cassini spacecraft sent to Earth before it plunged into the giant planet’s atmosphere. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute.

Planetary Researchers Model Landscape Formation on Saturn’s Moon Titan

Apr 25, 2022 by News Staff

Alongside Earth and Mars, Titan is the third planetary body in the Solar System to show evidence for widespread and diverse sedimentary environments, including...

This composite image, taken by JAXA’s Akatsuki spacecraft, shows Venus. Image credit: JAXA / ISAS / DARTS / Damia Bouic.

New Study Sheds More Light on Dynamics of Venus’ Atmosphere

Apr 20, 2022 by News Staff

The gravity of a large object in space can keep a smaller object from spinning, a phenomenon called tidal locking. The discovery and characterization of...

This artist’s conception shows how double ridges on the surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa may form over shallow, refreezing water pockets within the ice shell. Image credit: Justice Blaine Wainwright.

Study: Shallow Liquid Water is Ubiquitous across Ice Shell of Jupiter’s Moon Europa

Apr 20, 2022 by News Staff

Surface landforms called double ridges occur across every sector of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa and can be hundreds of kilometers in length. In new research,...

Ridges of possible aeolian origin from the Galileo Solid State Imager. Image credit: McDonald et al., doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-29682-x.

Dune-Like Features Spotted on Jupiter’s Moon Io

Apr 19, 2022 by News Staff

Jupiter’s moon Io is the most volcanically active body in the Solar System, and the body that is known to be most rapidly resurfaced. Surface modification...

Global map of the albedo from the 750 nm filter of the UV-VIS camera onboard NASA’s Clementine spacecraft. The image shows the near side and far side of the Moon in Lambert, equal-area projection. Image credit: NASA.

Colossal Ancient Impact Explains Moon’s Two Faces

Apr 8, 2022 by News Staff

An ancient impact that formed the South Pole-Aitken basin, a vast impact structure on the far side of the Moon, would have created a massive plume of heat...

The landing site of InSight is marked by a blue triangle, while black stars denote the two identified marsquakes. The solid black lines demonstrate the Graben faults. The lower left inset map shows the global Martian topography, and the blue rectangular illustrates the research region. Image credit: Sun & Tkalčić, doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-29329-x.

Volcanic Activity Could Be Responsible for Triggering Marsquakes in Cerberus Fossae

Apr 6, 2022 by News Staff

Using seismic data from NASA’s Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) lander, planetary researchers...

Hubble’s photo of Jupiter displays the ever-changing landscape of its turbulent atmosphere. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Amy Simon, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / Michael H. Wong, University of California, Berkeley / Joseph DePasquale, STScI.

Proto-Jupiter Underwent Significant Orbital Migration, Research Suggests

Apr 4, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

The atmosphere of Jupiter is enriched with heavy elements by a factor of about 3 compared to a protosolar composition. The origin of this enrichment and...

Maurice et al. find that the speed of sound is slower on Mars than on Earth and that, mostly, a deep silence prevails. Image credit: Maurice et al., doi: 10.1038/s41586-022-04679-0.

Perseverance Characterizes Acoustic Environment of Mars

Apr 4, 2022 by News Staff

NASA’s Perseverance rover first recorded Martian sounds on February 19, 2021, the day after its arrival. These sounds fall within the human audible spectrum,...

This image shows Utopia Planitia, a plain that fills one of three major basins in the northern hemisphere of Mars. Image credit: ESA / DLR / FU Berlin / CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO.

Mars Express Sees Fascinating Ice-Related Features in Utopia Planitia

Mar 31, 2022 by News Staff

Utopia Planitia, a large lava plain in the northern hemisphere of Mars, has a diameter of roughly 3,300 km (2,051 miles) — just under twice the north-south...

This color image of Mercury was generated from three MESSENGER images taken through filters sensitive to light in different wavelengths. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Carnegie Institution of Washington.

Planet Mercury Has Magnetic Storms, New Research Shows

Mar 31, 2022 by News Staff

The significantly weaker magnetic field, smaller magnetosphere, and much faster timescale of processes around Mercury, when compared with Earth, enable...

The Wright Mons region on Pluto: darker/lower albedo, redder patches exist primarily on north-facing slopes but there are also more subtle differences in albedo and redness across the region; the region labeled A represents a redder unit transition to less red units at lower elevation. The longitude and latitude extents of the image are 160-182°E and 13-31°S. Image credit: Singer et al., doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-29056-3.

Enormous Cryovolcanoes Spotted on Pluto

Mar 29, 2022 by News Staff

Cryovolcanoes (ice volcanoes) are similar to normal volcanoes but instead of being formed from molten rock, they are made by frozen liquids like ammonia...

Artist’s concept of ocean on Jupiter’s moon Europa. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Salt Water within Europa’s Icy Shell Could Be Transporting Oxygen into Its Subsurface Ocean

Mar 24, 2022 by News Staff

Some icy moons in the outer Solar System likely contain an ocean beneath their ice shells. Jupiter’s moon Europa is thought to have an ocean beneath...

This MAHLI image shows a tighter view of the flower-like rock artifact. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS.

NASA’s Curiosity Rover Finds ‘Coral’ on Mars

Mar 3, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

The Mars Hand Lens Imager on NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has imaged a flower-like rock artifact in the Gale crater on Mars. This image from the MAHLI...

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...