Planetary Science News

Jupiter is Smaller and More ‘Squashed’ than Previously Believed, New Juno Data Reveal

This visible-light image of Jupiter was created from data captured on January 11, 2017 using Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3. Near the top, a long brown feature called a ‘brown barge’ extends 72,000 km (nearly 45,000 miles) in the east-west direction. The Great Red Spot stands out prominently in the lower left, while the smaller feature nicknamed Red Spot Jr. (known to Jovian scientists as Oval BA) appears to its lower right. Image credit: NASA / ESA / NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / Wong et al. / de Pater et al. / M. Zamani.
Feb 4, 2026 by Natali Anderson

Using high-precision radio-occultation measurements from NASA’s Juno mission and incorporating the effects of zonal winds, planetary scientists derived Jupiter’s shape with an order-of-magnitude reduction in uncertainty, finding polar, equatorial and mean radii smaller than previous estimates made with NASA’s Pioneer and Voyager missions. This visible-light image of Jupiter was created from data captured on January 11, 2017 using Hubble’s...

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This close-up color image of a small-scale dust storm on Mars was acquired by the HRSC instrument on ESA’s Mars Express in April 2018. Image credit: ESA / DLR / FU Berlin / CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO.

Even Local Dust Storms Can Drive Water Loss on Mars, Study Suggests

Feb 4, 2026 by News Staff

Mars almost certainly once held abundant water. Until now, observations have shown that most atmospheric water loss occurs during the Red Planet’s southern...

In this composite image, red pixels mark locations on Europa’s surface where ammonia-bearing compounds were detected; purple indicates no such detection. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Ammonia-Bearing Compounds Detected on Europa for First Time

Jan 30, 2026 by News Staff

A new analysis of archival data from the Near Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (NIMS) on board NASA’s Galileo spacecraft has revealed the first evidence...

This artist’s concept depicts a cutaway view showing Europa’s ice shell. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / Koji Kuramura / Gerald Eichstädt.

Europa’s Ice Shell is Much Thicker than Previously Thought

Jan 29, 2026 by News Staff

New microwave measurements from NASA’s Juno spacecraft reveal Europa’s ice shell may stretch nearly 29 km (18 miles) deep, reshaping planetary scientists’...

A close-up view of a portion of a ‘relatively fresh’ crater, looking southeast, as photographed during the third Apollo 15 lunar surface moonwalk. Image credit: NASA.

New Lunar Regolith Analysis Challenges Meteorite-Water Theory

Jan 26, 2026 by News Staff

Planetary scientists analyzing oxygen isotopes in lunar soil from the Apollo mission sites conclude that meteorite bombardment over 4 billion years could...

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

New Model Suggests How Nutrients Could Penetrate Europa’s Ice Shell to Feed Its Hidden Ocean

Jan 20, 2026 by News Staff

A duo of geophysicists from Washington State University and Virginia Tech has uncovered a plausible pathway for nutrient transfer from the radiation-charged...

Cryogenian Earth. Image credit: NASA.

Tectonic Plate Movements, Not Volcanoes, Drove Major Climate Shifts Over 540 Million Years

Jan 20, 2026 by News Staff

New research challenges conventional wisdom by demonstrating that mid-ocean ridges and continental rifts, not volcanic eruptions, played the central role...

This composite image, derived from data collected by the JIRAM instrument aboard NASA’s Juno orbiter, shows the central cyclone at Jupiter’s north pole and the eight cyclones that encircle it. JIRAM collects data in infrared, and the colors in this composite represent radiant heat: the yellow (thinner) clouds are about 9 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 13 degrees Celsius) in brightness temperature and the dark red (thickest) are around minus 181 degrees Fahrenheit (83 degrees Celsius). Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / ASI / INAF / JIRAM.

Polar Cyclones Reveal Hidden Interiors of Jupiter and Saturn

Jan 20, 2026 by News Staff

New research by MIT planetary scientists shows how striking differences in the polar vortex patterns of Jupiter and Saturn may be driven by deep interior...

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.

Europa’s Ocean Floor is Surprisingly Calm, New Modeling Study Suggests

Jan 7, 2026 by News Staff

A new analysis of stress, tides and interior forces suggests Jupiter’s icy moon Europa lacks the active seafloor faulting needed for robust hydrothermal...

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.

Titan Does Not Have Subsurface Ocean, New Study Indicates

Dec 17, 2025 by News Staff

The data from NASA’s Cassini mission to Saturn initially led researchers to suspect a large underground ocean composed of liquid water on Titan. However,...

Uranus could be an ice giant (left) or a rock giant (right) depending on the model assumptions. Image credit: Keck Institute for Space Studies / Chuck Carter.

New Research Challenges Classification of Uranus and Neptune as Ice Giants

Dec 11, 2025 by News Staff

The composition of Uranus and Neptune might be less icy than previously thought, according to a new study by University of Zürich scientists. Uranus could...

Characterization of a presolar spinel-hibonite grain from the asteroid Bennu. Image credit: Nguyen et al., doi: 10.1038/s41550-025-02688-3.

Scientists Find Presolar Stardust in Samples from Asteroid Bennu

Dec 10, 2025 by News Staff

Researchers have detected an unexpectedly high abundance of presolar grains — dust from stellar explosions predating our Solar System — in...

Manannán’s Damhán Alla geomorphologic map. Image credit: Mc Keown et al., doi: 10.3847/PSJ/ae18a0.

Europa’s Spider-Like Feature is Analogous to Earth’s Lake Stars, Planetary Researchers Say

Dec 9, 2025 by News Staff

Jupiter’s icy moon Europa is an ocean world that is a prime candidate in the search for potential extraterrestrial habitability and life beyond Earth....

Electron microscopy of a particle from the sample from Bennu. Image credit: Sandford et al., doi: 10.1038/s41550-025-02694-5.

Gum-Like Substance Found in Samples from Asteroid Bennu

Dec 9, 2025 by News Staff

This gum-like material — never seen before in space — was likely formed in the early days of the Solar System, as Bennu’s parent asteroid...

Allen et al. compared space weather impacts of a fast solar wind structure (first panel) driving an intense solar storm at Earth in 2019 (second panel) with conditions observed at Uranus by Voyager 2 in 1986 (third panel) to potentially solve a 39-year-old mystery about the extreme radiation belts found. Image credit: SwRI.

Scientists May Have Solved Mystery about Uranus’ Radiation Belts

Dec 9, 2025 by News Staff

In 1986, NASA’s Voyager 2 provided the only direct measurement of the radiation environment at Uranus. These findings established the well-accepted characterization...

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is on a mission to explore the asteroid Bennu and return a sample to Earth. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab.

Scientists Find Extraterrestrial Bio-Essential Sugars in Samples from Asteroid Bennu

Dec 3, 2025 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the United States and Japan has analyzed an extract from a sample of the near-Earth asteroid (101955) Bennu collected by NASA’s...

Mastcam-Z landscape and multispectral images of light-toned float rocks atop the Jezero crater Margin Unit near the Hans Amundson Memorial workspace (Sol 912) demonstrating the spectral diversity of this material. Image credit: Broz et al., doi: 10.1038/s43247-025-02856-3.

Mars Was Warmer, Wetter Millions of Years Ago, Planetary Scientists Say

Dec 3, 2025 by News Staff

NASA’s Perseverance rover has discovered several thousand small, light-toned rock fragments, or float rocks, with some exhibiting spectral signatures...

Detection of electric discharges in dust devils by the SuperCam instrument on board NASA’s Perseverance rover on Mars. Image credit: Nicolas Sarter.

Perseverance Detects Triboelectric Discharges during Martian Dust Devils and Storms

Dec 1, 2025 by News Staff

Using data captured by the SuperCam microphone aboard NASA’s Perseverance rover over two Martian years, planetrary scientists have detected 55 triboelectric...

An artist’s impression of the collision between the proto-Earth and Theia. Image credit: MPS / Mark A. Garlick.

Moon-Forming Protoplanet Theia Originated from Inner Solar System, New Research Suggests

Nov 21, 2025 by News Staff

The Moon formed from a giant impact of the proto-Earth with the ancient protoplanet Theia. In a new study, a team of scientists from the United States,...

An artistic rendering of Kraken Mare, a large liquid methane sea on Titan. Image credit: NASA’s John Glenn Research Center.

Unexpected Mixture of Hydrogen Cyanide and Hydrocarbons May Exist on Saturn’s Moon Titan

Oct 21, 2025 by Natali Anderson

Titan offers great motivation for the detailed study of organic chemistry in unconventional conditions. Nonpolar hydrocarbons such as ethane and methane...

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