Planetary Science News

Moon May Be 85 Million Years Younger than Thought

When the Moon formed into a sphere approximately 1,700 km in radius 4.425 billion years ago, its interior heated up considerably due to the energy released when it accreted. The rock melted and an ocean of magma, possibly more than 1,000 km deep, formed. Later, light rocks crystallized, which rose to the surface and formed a first crust on the Moon. This crust insulated the Moon from space, and the magma ocean beneath it cooled down slowly. Around 200 million years would pass before the Moon completely solidified. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
Jul 15, 2020 by News Staff

Earth’s only natural satellite formed 4.425 billion years ago — around 85 million years later than previous estimates, according to a new modeling study by researchers from the German Aerospace Center (DLR), the Technische Universität Berlin and the Institut für Planetologie at the University of Münster. When the Moon formed into a sphere approximately 1,700 km in radius 4.425 billion years ago, its interior heated up considerably due to...

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This photograph was taken looking south across Mare Imbrium. The crater Copernicus, 93 km (58 miles) in diameter, is seen in the distance. Several chains of small craters are visible. These are oriented toward Copernicus and are secondary craters produced by material ejected when Copernicus formed. In the foreground, the crater Pytheas is 20 km (12.4 miles) in diameter. This photo was taken by the Apollo 17 crew in 1972. Image credit: Lunar and Planetary Institute.

Lunar Subsurface May Be Richer in Metals than Previously Thought

Jul 2, 2020 by News Staff

Using data from the Miniature Radio Frequency (Mini-RF) instrument onboard NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), a team of U.S. researchers has...

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

Planetary Researchers Explore Habitability of Europa’s Ocean

Jun 25, 2020 by News Staff

A duo of U.S. planetary scientists has calculated that water in the subsurface ocean of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa could have been formed by breakdown...

This high-resolution image of Pluto was taken by New Horizons on July 14. Pluto’s surface sports a remarkable range of subtle colors, enhanced in this view to a rainbow of pale blues, yellows, oranges, and deep reds. Many landforms have their own distinct colors, telling a complex geological and climatological story that scientists have only just begun to decode. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

Newborn Pluto Was Hot and Had Subsurface Ocean: Study

Jun 23, 2020 by News Staff

Pluto is thought to possess a subsurface ocean beneath its thick ice shell. It has generally been assumed that the dwarf planet formed out of cold material...

An artist’s impression of ESA’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter detecting the green glow of oxygen in the Martian atmosphere. This emission, spotted on the dayside of Mars, is similar to the night glow seen around Earth’s atmosphere from space. Image credit: ESA.

ESA’s Trace Gas Orbiter Detects Glowing Oxygen in Martian Atmosphere

Jun 18, 2020 by News Staff

Using data from the NOMAD (Nadir and Occultation for Mars Discovery) ultraviolet and visible spectrometer instrument on board ESA’s ExoMars Trace Gas...

An example of the lunar rockfall. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / ASU.

Planetary Scientists Create First Global Map of Lunar Rockfalls

Jun 10, 2020 by News Staff

Using an artificial intelligence and big data-driven approach, a team of planetary researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research...

This mosaic of Saturn and its largest moon Titan combines six images -- two each of red, green and blue spectral filters -- to create this natural color view. The images were obtained with Cassini’s wide-angle camera on May 6, 2012, at a distance of approximately 778,000 km (483,000 miles) from Titan. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute.

Titan Migrates Away from Saturn Faster than Previously Thought

Jun 9, 2020 by News Staff

Saturn is orbited by 82 moons, and tidal friction within the giant planet causes the moons to migrate outwards. In a study published this week in the journal...

These images from the THEMIS camera on NASA’s Mars Odyssey orbiter show Phobos during different phases: waxing, waning and full. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / ASU / NAU.

Mars Odyssey Captures New Thermal Images of Phobos

Jun 8, 2020 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) camera on NASA’s Mars Odyssey orbiter have captured new infrared images of Phobos, the...

Researchers Find New Evidence that Mars Once Had Massive Ring

Jun 4, 2020 by News Staff

Mars had a massive ring system several billion years ago, according to new research from the SETI Institute and Purdue University. An artist’s impression...

Electric currents (blue and red arrows) envelop Mars in a nested, double-loop structure that wraps continuously around the planet from its day side to its night side. These current loops distort the solar wind magnetic field (not pictured), which drapes around Mars to create an induced magnetosphere around the planet. In the process, the currents electrically connect Mars’ upper atmosphere and the induced magnetosphere to the solar wind, transferring electric and magnetic energy generated at the boundary of the induced magnetosphere (faint inner paraboloid) and at the solar wind bow shock (faint outer paraboloid). Image credit: NASA / Goddard / MAVEN / CU Boulder / SVS / Cindy Starr.

Researchers Create Map of Electric Currents in Magnetosphere of Mars

May 27, 2020 by News Staff

Using five years of magnetic field data obtained by NASA’s MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) spacecraft, a team of scientists has created...

Gale crater is 155 km in diameter and now holds a layered mountain rising about 5 km above the crater floor. This illustration depicts a lake of water partially filling the crater. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / ASU / UA / Sci-News.com.

Curiosity Finds Evidence of Mars’ Ancient Ice-Covered Lakes

May 21, 2020 by News Staff

Using data from the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument on NASA’s rover Curiosity, researchers have found that certain minerals in rocks at Gale...

This image from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) shows a hill with a central crater. Such features have been interpreted as both mud volcanoes (really a sedimentary structure) and as actual volcanoes (the erupting lava kind). They occur on the floor of Valles Marineris below a closed topographic contour that could have held a lake, and the compaction of wet sediments may have created mud volcanoes. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / University of Arizona.

Martian Mud Volcanoes May Look Similar to Lava Flows Found on Earth

May 19, 2020 by News Staff

Mud flows exposed to the low atmospheric pressures found on Mars will behave similar to lava flows in Hawaii or Iceland, also known as pahoehoe flows,...

Water vapor plumes on Jupiter’s icy moon Europa. Image credit: David Ladd, USRA & NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Study Provides Additional Evidence for Water Vapor Plumes on Europa

May 19, 2020 by News Staff

NASA’s Galileo spacecraft encountered an active water plume during a flyby of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa in 2000, according to a new study published...

This image of Jupiter was taken on February 17, 2020 as Juno performed its 25th close flyby of the gas giant. At the time the image was taken, the spacecraft was 25,120 km (15,610 miles) from the planet’s cloud tops at a latitude of about 71 degrees North. Image credit: NASA / JPL / SwRI / MSSS / Gerald Eichstaedt.

Juno Sees Jupiter’s Northern High-Altitude Hazes

May 18, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

NASA’s Juno orbiter captured a beautiful image during its 25th close flyby of Jupiter in February 2020. This image of Jupiter was taken on February 17,...

This image from ESA’s Mars Express shows a beautiful slice of the Red Planet from the northern polar cap downwards, and highlights cratered, pockmarked swathes of the Terra Sabaea and Arabia Terra regions. It comprises data gathered on June 17, 2019. This image was created using data from the nadir and color channels of Mars Express’ High Resolution Stereo Camera. The nadir channel is aligned perpendicular to the surface of Mars, as if looking straight down at the surface. North is up. Image credit: ESA / DLR / FU Berlin.

Pockets of Salty Water May Exist on Present-Day Mars

May 14, 2020 by News Staff

A new study shows that pockets of brine can form and persist from the equator to high latitudes on the Martian surface for a few percent of the year for...

A fragment of the Tagish Lake meteorite. Image credit: Mike Zolensky, NASA’s Johnson Space Center.

Researchers Find Evidence of Ancient Molecular Fluids in Meteorite

May 12, 2020 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the United States and Canada has found evidence for 4.55-billion-year-old sodium-rich alkaline fluids in the Tagish Lake meteorite,...

Channel-forms preserved in sedimentary layers in Hellas Planitia on Mars. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / University of Arizona / Matt Balme.

Deep, Perennial or Semi-Perennial Rivers Flowed on Early Mars

May 7, 2020 by News Staff

While the present-day Martian surface is generally dry and cold, its sedimentary rocks contain compelling evidence for the former presence of liquid water....

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

Martian Dynamo was Active between 4.5 and 3.7 Billion Years Ago, Study Says

May 5, 2020 by News Staff

A planet’s global magnetic field arises from a so-called dynamo — a flow of molten metal within the planet’s core that produces an electrical...

NASA Releases Reprocessed Photos of Jupiter’s Moon Europa

May 5, 2020 by News Staff

The newly-remastered images show the icy surface of Europa, the sixth of Jupiter’s moons and the fourth largest, in enhanced color. This map shows locations...

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.

Active Tectonic System Spotted on Moon’s Nearside

May 4, 2020 by News Staff

A system of wrinkle ridges on the nearside maria of the Moon is evidence of seismic activity set in motion 4.3 billion years ago that could be ongoing...

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