Planetary Science News

Atmosphere of Saturn’s Hazy Moon Titan Wobbles Like Gyroscope, Planetary Researchers Find

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.
May 22, 2025 by News Staff

Titan is the only moon in the Solar System with a significant atmosphere, and one that has long captivated planetary scientists. According to a new analysis of archival infrared data gathered by the Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) onboard the NASA/ESA Cassini-Huygens mission, Titan’s hazy atmosphere doesn’t spin in line with its surface, but instead wobbles like a gyroscope, shifting with the seasons. This view of Titan is among the last...

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Artist’s impression of a volcano erupting on Venus. Image credit: ESA / AOES Medialab.

Planetary Scientists Find New Evidence for Tectonic Activity on Venus

May 20, 2025 by News Staff

Venus, Earth’s ‘twin planet,’ presents clear contrasts in terms of surface conditions, atmospheric chemistry, and tectonic state. Understanding the...

The first visible-light image of green aurora on Mars (left), taken by the Mastcam-Z instrument on NASA’s Perseverance rover. On the right is a comparison image of the night sky of Mars without aurora but featuring the Martian moon Deimos. The moonlit Martian night sky, lit up mostly by Mars’ nearer and larger moon Phobos (outside the frame) has a reddish-brown hue due to the dust in the atmosphere, so when green auroral light is added, the sky takes on a green-yellow tone, as seen in the left image. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / ASU / MSSS / SSI.

Perseverance Detects Visible-Wavelength Aurora on Mars

May 19, 2025 by News Staff

Mars hosts various auroral processes despite the planet’s tenuous atmosphere and lack of a global magnetic field. To date, all aurora observations have...

An artist’s illustration of a solar storm. Image credit: NASA.

Radiocarbon Spike 14,350 Years Ago was Caused by Strongest Known Solar Storm, Study Confirms

May 15, 2025 by News Staff

The Sun rarely produced extreme solar particle events, orders of magnitude stronger than everything directly observed. Their enormous power can greatly...

These images of Titan, taken by Webb on July 11, 2023 (top row), and the Keck II telescope on July 14, 2023 (bottom row), show methane clouds (white arrows) appearing at different altitudes in Titan’s northern hemisphere. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI / Keck Observatory.

Weather Report from Saturn’s Moon Titan: Partly Cloudy with Occasional Methane Showers

May 14, 2025 by NASA

Using data from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope and the Keck II telescope, astronomers found evidence of cloud convection in the northern hemisphere...

An artist’s concept of active volcanoes on Venus, depicting a subduction zone where the foreground crust plunges into the planet’s interior at the topographic trench. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Peter Rubin.

Modeling Study Provides New Details about Venus’ Crust

May 12, 2025 by News Staff

Planetary scientists expected the outermost layer of the crust of Earth’s hotter twin would grow thicker and thicker over time given its apparent lack...

The Stac Fada Member. Image credit: Tony Prave.

Massive Meteorite Struck Northwestern Scotland 990 Million Years Ago

Apr 30, 2025 by News Staff

Previously believed to have occurred 1.2 billion years ago, this ancient impact created the Stac Fada Member, a layer of rock that holds vital clues to...

As NASA’s Dawn spacecraft takes off for its next destination, this mosaic synthesizes some of the best views the spacecraft had of the giant asteroid Vesta. Dawn studied Vesta from July 2011 to September 2012. The towering mountain at the south pole -- more than twice the height of Mount Everest -- is visible at the bottom of the image. The set of three craters known as the ‘snowman’ can be seen at the top left. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA.

Vesta Lacks Metallic Core, New Research Suggests

Apr 28, 2025 by News Staff

Vesta, the second largest asteroid in our Solar System, has not experienced full differentiation into a metallic core, silicate mantle and basaltic crust,...

This artist’s impression shows how Mars may have looked about 4 billion years ago. Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO.

Early Mars Had Climate Warm Enough to Support Rain, New Modeling Study Suggests

Apr 22, 2025 by News Staff

Observations of large valley networks on today’s Mars suggest formation by flowing water. However, most climate models cannot sustain temperatures above...

This image of the asteroid Donaldjohanson was captured by the Lucy Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (L’LORRI) on April 20, 2025, near closest approach, from a range of 1,100 km (660 miles). Image credit: NASA / Goddard / SwRI / Johns Hopkins APL / NOIRLab.

Lucy Shares Stunning Images from Flyby of Asteroid Donaldjohanson

Apr 22, 2025 by News Staff

An asteroid called Donaldjohanson was captured by NASA’s Lucy spacecraft during a flyby on April 20, 2025. At closest approach, the spacecraft came within...

This composite image shows an infrared view of Titan. In this image blue represents wavelengths centered at 1.3 microns, green represents 2.0 microns, and red represents 5.0 microns. A view at visible wavelengths would show only Titan’s hazy atmosphere; the near-infrared wavelengths in this image allow Cassini’s vision to penetrate the haze and reveal the moon’s surface. The view looks toward terrain that is mostly on the Saturn-facing hemisphere of Titan. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute.

Many of Titan’s Rivers Do Not End in Deltas, New Study Finds

Apr 18, 2025 by News Staff

Earth’s coastlines are fascinating places where liquids mix and materials are shaped into distinct landforms like river deltas. Similar active coastlines...

Curiosity sees its tracks receding into the distance at a site nicknamed Ubajara on April 30, 2023; this site is where the rover made the discovery of siderite. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS.

Carbonate Minerals Found by Curiosity Indicate Carbon Cycle Operated on Early Mars

Apr 17, 2025 by News Staff

NASA’s Curiosity rover has found evidence of a carbon cycle on ancient Mars, bringing scientists closer to an answer on whether the planet was ever capable...

Computer simulation of a one-sided magnetic field on early Mars. Image credit: Ankit Barik / Johns Hopkins University.

Liquid Inner Core Could Explain Mars’ One-Sided Magnetic Field

Apr 15, 2025 by News Staff

Recent measurements from NASA’s InSight mission show that Mars’ core is less dense than planetary scientists previously believed. This indicates that...

An artist’s rendering of the surface of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan. Image credit: Benjamin de Bivort, debivort.org / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Titan May Be Able to Support Only Minuscule Amount of Biomass, New Modeling Study Suggests

Apr 8, 2025 by News Staff

A team of biologists from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and France has developed a scenario of what life on Titan, Saturn’s largest moon,...

Three dust devils can be seen in this image taken at the rim of Jezero Crater by NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover on January 25, 2025. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SSI.

Perseverance Witnesses Larger Dust Devil Consuming Smaller One on Mars

Apr 3, 2025 by NASA

A Martian dust devil can be seen consuming a smaller one in a series of images taken by a navigation camera aboard NASA’s Perseverance rover. Dust devils...

Artist’s impression of a volcano erupting on Venus. Image credit: ESA / AOES Medialab.

Venus May Be Even More Geologically Active Near Its Surface than Previously Thought

Apr 1, 2025 by News Staff

An unexpected phenomenon called convection could help explain many of the volcanoes and other features of the Venusian landscape. Artist’s impression...

This graphic shows the long-chain organic molecules decane, undecane, and dodecane, and NASA’s Curiosity rover. Image credit: NASA / Dan Gallagher.

Curiosity Finds Long-Chain Carbon Molecules in Martian Mudstone

Mar 25, 2025 by Natali Anderson

The Sample Analysis at Mars instrument onboard NASA’s Curiosity rover has detected decane, undecane, and dodecane molecules in a sample from Gale crater. This...

An artist’s impression of a rocky asteroid. Image credit: Mark A. Garlick, Space-art.co.uk / University of Warwick / University of Cambridge.

75 Laboratory-Classified Meteorites Traced to Their Parent Asteroids in Main Belt

Mar 19, 2025 by News Staff

Astronomers from SETI Institute, NASA’s Ames Research Center and Curtin University have traced the impact orbit of 75 observed meteorite falls to several...

Lightning starts with a positive fast discharge, followed by an even faster and more extensive negative discharge observed in 3D; signal polarizations slant from the discharge propagation direction and rotate between the two opposite fast discharges; these features can only be due to a cosmic-ray shower that preconditioned the discharge path and guided the discharge current direction. Image credit: ELG21.

Cosmic-Ray Showers Play Pivotal Role in Triggering Lightning Flashes

Mar 11, 2025 by News Staff

How lightning is started in thunderstorms is poorly known. With a newly-developed 3D mapping and polarization system, physicists at Los Alamos National...

This image from the Emirates Mars Mission shows Mars and its thin atmosphere. Image credit: UAESA / MBRSC / Hope Mars Mission / EXI / AndreaLuck.

Middle Atmosphere of Mars is Driven by Gravity Waves, New Research Suggests

Mar 6, 2025 by News Staff

Atmospheric gravity waves play a crucial role in driving latitudinal air currents on the Red Planet, particularly at high altitudes, according to a new...

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