Planetary Science News

The South Pole-Aitken Basin on the lunar far side is one of the largest and oldest impact features in the Solar System. It’s easily seen in the elevation data. The low center is dark blue and purple. Mountains on its edge, remnants of outer rings, are red and yellow. Image credit: NASA / GSFC / University of Arizona.

Mysterious Mass of Material Discovered Beneath Moon’s South Pole-Aitken Basin

Jun 11, 2019 by News Staff

The South Pole-Aitken basin — the largest crater in the Solar System — is a gigantic impact structure on the far side of the Moon. Data from...

This Pluto mosaic was made from New Horizons LORRI images taken on July 14, 2015, from a distance of 49,700 miles (80,000 km). This view is projected from a point 1,118 miles (1,800 km) above Pluto’s equator, looking northeast over the dark, cratered Cthulhu Regio toward the bright, smooth expanse of icy plains called Sputnik Planum. Pluto’s North Pole is off the image to the left. This mosaic was produced with panchromatic images from the New Horizons LORRI camera, with color overlaid from the Ralph color mapper onboard New Horizons. Image credit: S.A. Stern et al.

Insulating Shell of Gas Hydrates May Prevent Pluto’s Subsurface Ocean from Freezing

May 29, 2019 by News Staff

Many icy bodies in our Solar System have underground oceans. On the dwarf planet Pluto, an area called Sputnik Planitia suggests the presence of a subsurface...

A view of Mars showing the planet’s northern polar ice cap. Image credit: ISRO / ISSDC / Emily Lakdawalla.

Planetary Scientists Find Ancient Ice Caps beneath Martian North Pole

May 28, 2019 by News Staff

Planetary researchers using data from the Shallow Radar (SHARAD) instrument on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have discovered rich deposits of water...

The retreat of the Martian polar cap of frozen carbon dioxide during the spring and summer generates winds that drive the largest movements of sand dunes observed on Mars. Image credit: NASA / JPL / University of Arizona / USGS.

Martian Sand Dunes Behave Differently than Dunes on Earth: Study

May 27, 2019 by News Staff

According to new research, published in the journal Geology, processes not involved in controlling sand movement on Earth play major roles on the Red Planet,...

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.

Moon’s Nearside-Farside Asymmetries are Result of Ancient Giant Impact, Says New Study

May 23, 2019 by News Staff

The Moon has striking asymmetries between its nearside and farside in topography, crustal thickness, and composition. A new study, published in the Journal...

Topographic map of the Moon’s south pole (80°S to pole). Image credit: Lunar and Planetary Institute / Universities Space Research Association / NASA.

Planetary Researchers Create Atlas of Moon’s South Pole

May 22, 2019 by News Staff

To assist NASA and the lunar community, a team of researchers from the Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI) has compiled an online atlas that consists of...

This image of Jupiter was taken on February 12, 2019, as Juno performed its 18th close flyby of the planet. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / MSSS / Kevin M. Gill.

Jupiter’s Winds Interact with Its Magnetic Field, Scientists Say

May 22, 2019 by News Staff

Planetary researchers from NASA’s Juno mission made the first detection beyond Earth of an internal magnetic field that changes over time — a phenomenon...

The Yutu-2 rover moves across the far side of the Moon. Image credit: CNSA.

Yutu-2 Rover Finds Lunar Mantle Minerals on the Far Side of the Moon

May 16, 2019 by News Staff

China’s Chang’E-4 lander recently touched down in Von Karman — a 112-mile (180 km) wide crater located within an even larger impact crater known...

This thrust fault is one of thousands discovered on the Moon by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. These faults resemble small stair-shaped cliffs, or scarps, when seen from the lunar surface. The scarps form when one section of the Moon’s crust (left-pointing arrows) is pushed up over an adjacent section (right-pointing arrows) as the Moon’s interior cools and shrinks. Image credit: NASA / GSFC / Arizona State University / Smithsonian Institution.

Moon is Still Tectonically Active, Researchers Say

May 14, 2019 by News Staff

In 2010, an analysis of images from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) found that the Moon shriveled like a raisin as its interior cooled, leaving...

Merging neutron stars. Image credit: Mark Garlick, University of Warwick.

Violent Collision of Two Neutron Stars Occurred near Pre-Solar Nebula 4.6 Billion Years Ago

May 5, 2019 by News Staff

According to new research, a nearby binary neutron-star merger gave birth to 0.3% of the Earth’s heaviest elements, including gold, platinum and uranium;...

The S-type asteroid Itokawa. Image credit: JAXA.

Scientists Find Water-Bearing Minerals in Samples from Asteroid Itokawa

May 3, 2019 by News Staff

A duo of researchers from the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University has made the first-ever measurements of ancient water contained...

A false-color view of Titan, a moon of Saturn surrounded by a thick orange haze. Image credit: NASA / JPL / University of Arizona / University of Idaho.

Planetary Scientists Spot Icy Corridor on Titan

May 1, 2019 by News Staff

A team of planetary researchers from the United States, Canada and Italy has detected an ice-rich linear feature of bedrock in the tropical region of Saturn’s...

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.

Pluto’s Atmosphere Predicted to Collapse by 2030

Apr 25, 2019 by News Staff

The tenuous nitrogen atmosphere of the dwarf planet Pluto is predicted to ultimately collapse and freeze over. This high-resolution image of Pluto was...

An artist’s impression of the InSight lander on Mars. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

NASA’s InSight Lander Detects Its First Marsquake

Apr 24, 2019 by News Staff

The SEIS (Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure) instrument on NASA’s InSight lander detected the faint seismic signal on April 6, 2019, the lander’s...

Mercury. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Carnegie Institution of Washington.

Mercury Has Solid Inner Core, Planetary Scientists Say

Apr 18, 2019 by News Staff

Planetary researchers have long known that Earth and Mercury have metallic cores. Mercury’s core fills nearly 85% of the volume of the planet —...

Water is released from the Moon during meteor showers, when micrometeoroid impacts breach the dry lunar surface and eject water molecules from a hydrated layer below. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / Conceptual Image Lab.

LADEE Detects Water Molecules from Meteoroid Strikes on Moon

Apr 17, 2019 by News Staff

Using data from NASA’s Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE), a team of researchers has discovered that water is being released from...

An illustration showing how a sliver of cometary building block material was swallowed by an asteroid and preserved inside a meteorite. Image credit: Larry Nittler / NASA.

Scientists Find Cometary Fragment in Primitive Asteroidal Meteorite

Apr 16, 2019 by News Staff

A cometary building block has been discovered inside the LaPaz Icefield (LAP) 02342, a carbonaceous chondrite meteorite found in Antarctica in the 2000s. An...

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’s Lakes are Surprisingly Deep, Have Methane-Dominated Composition, Says Cassini Team

Apr 16, 2019 by News Staff

Radar data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft have revealed that small lakes in the northern hemisphere of Saturn’s hazy moon Titan are surprisingly deep...

As a metallic asteroid such as Psyche cooled and solidified, iron volcanoes may have erupted onto its surface. Image credit: Elena Hartley.

Ferrovolcanism: Liquid Iron-Spewing Volcanoes Erupted on Metallic Asteroids, Scientists Say

Apr 9, 2019 by News Staff

Metallic asteroids are the cooled cores of disrupted planetesimals. They originated early in the history of our Solar System when planets were beginning...