Planetary Science News

Lucy Captures Its First Images of Main-Belt Asteroid Donaldjohanson

This illustration shows NASA’s Lucy spacecraft passing one of the Trojan asteroids near Jupiter. Image credit: Southwest Research Institute.
Feb 26, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

NASA’s Lucy spacecraft will fly by the small asteroid Donaldjohanson on April 20, 2025. By blinking between images captured by NASA’s Lucy spacecraft on February 20 and 22, 2025, this animation shows the perceived motion of Donaldjohanson relative to the background stars as the spacecraft rapidly approaches the asteroid. Image credit: NASA / Goddard / SwRI / Johns Hopkins APL. Donaldjohanson is a carbonaceous asteroid approximately 4 km (2.5 miles)...

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This artist’s concept shows a cutaway of Mars, along with the paths of seismic waves from two separate marsquakes in 2021. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / University of Maryland.

Mars May Have Solid Inner Core

Feb 26, 2025 by News Staff

A team of researchers at the Bayerisches Geoinstitut has conducted high-pressure-temperature laboratory experiments to determine the crystal structure...

This image from Mars Express’ High Resolution Stereo Camera shows the globe of Mars set against a dark background. The disk of the planet features yellow, orange, blue and green patches, all with an overall muted grey hue, representing the varying composition of the surface. Image credit: ESA / DLR / FU Berlin / G. Michael / CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO.

Water-Rich Iron Mineral May Be Main Culprit behind Mars’ Red Color

Feb 25, 2025 by News Staff

Called ferrihydrite, this iron mineral formed during a cold, wet period on early Mars under oxidative conditions, followed by a transition to the current...

A panoramic photo taken by China’s Zhurong rover on Mars. Image credit: National Astronomical Observatories.

Early Mars Was Home to Sun-Soaked, Sandy Beaches, New Study Suggests

Feb 25, 2025 by News Staff

Using data gathered by China’s Zhurong rover, planetary researchers have identified hidden layers of rock under the Martian surface that strongly suggest...

This Curiosity/Mastcam image shows noctilucent clouds in the Martian atmosphere. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS / SSI.

Curiosity Spots Noctilucent Clouds in Martian Atmosphere

Feb 13, 2025 by News Staff

New images, taken over 16 min on January 17, 2025 by the Mastcam instrument on NASA’s Curiosity rover, show noctilucent, or twilight clouds, in the atmosphere...

The Bendego meteorite. Image credit: Jorge Andrade / CC BY 2.0.

Building Blocks of Earth and Mars Were Originally Rich in Moderately Volatile Elements

Feb 5, 2025 by News Staff

A new analysis of magmatic iron meteorites challenges traditional theories about why Earth and Mars are depleted in moderately volatile elements. The Bendego...

Charalambous et al. associate a new 21.5-m Mars impact crater in the tectonically active Cerberus Fossae region with InSight’s seismic event, S0794a. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / University of Arizona.

Impact-Generated Marsquakes Can Reach Deeper into Red Planet than Previously Known

Feb 4, 2025 by News Staff

In a new study, planetary researchers used global and high-resolution orbital imaging to discover a fresh, 21.5-m (71-foot) impact crater that appeared...

A view of the outside of the OSIRIS-REx sample collector. Sample material from asteroid Bennu can be seen on the middle right. Image credit: NASA / Erika Blumenfeld / Joseph Aebersold.

Scientists Find Amino Acids, Salts and Other Compounds in Samples from Asteroid Bennu

Jan 29, 2025 by News Staff

Asteroid Bennu is thought to be made of rubble fragments from a 4.5-billion-year-old parent body, containing materials that originated beyond Saturn, which...

Small ridges on the Moon’s far side (yellow) reveal evidence that the Moon may not be as dormant as previously believed. Image credit: Tom Watters, Smithsonian Institution

Researchers Find Evidence for Relatively Recent Seismic Activity on Lunar Far Side

Jan 29, 2025 by News Staff

New research from Smithsonian Institution and the University of Maryland shows that lunar fault structures may be recently and potentially currently active...

A massive hotspot can be seen just to the right of Io’s south pole in this image taken by the JIRAM infrared imager aboard NASA’s Juno on December 27, 2024, during the spacecraft’s flyby of the Jovian moon. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / ASI / INAF / JIRAM.

Juno Detects Massive Volcanic Hotspot near Io’s South Pole

Jan 29, 2025 by News Staff

The newly-discovered volcanic hotspot is larger than Earth’s Lake Superior, and belches out eruptions six times the total energy of all the world’s...

The young Mars would have had enough water to cover its entire surface in a liquid layer about 140 m deep, but it is more likely that the liquid would have pooled to form an ocean occupying almost half of Mars’s northern hemisphere, and in some regions reaching depths greater than 1.6 km. Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO / N. Risinger, skysurvey.org.

Planetary Scientists Offer New Explanation for Warm, Wet Ancient Mars

Jan 29, 2025 by News Staff

A team of planetary researchers led by Caltech has determined the chemical mechanisms by which the ancient Mars was able to sustain enough warmth in its...

A global scan for organic-rich sites on Ceres using a deep neural network revealed two new sites close to the well-known Ernutet crater. Image credit: Sarkar et al., doi: 10.1029/2024AV001362.

Dwarf Planet Ceres’ Organic Matter Was Originally Delivered by Impactors from Main Belt: Study

Jan 28, 2025 by News Staff

Ceres is the largest object in the main asteroid belt, and the only potential ocean world in the inner Solar System. A global scan for organic-rich sites...

Titan’s abundant atmospheric nitrogen and methane gases are notable characteristics of the moon that may help constrain its origin and evolution. Image credit: SwRI.

New Experiments Shed Light on How Titan Maintains Its Unique Nitrogen-Rich Atmosphere

Jan 27, 2025 by News Staff

Heating of complex organic matter in the presence of water may be an important source of Titan’s abundant atmospheric nitrogen and methane gases, according...

The fragments of the Charlottetown meteorite. Image credit: University of Alberta Meteorite Collection.

Sound of Meteorite Strike Recorded for First Time Ever

Jan 24, 2025 by News Staff

In July 2024, a home security camera in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada, captured rare video and sound of a meteorite striking Earth. According...

Two Martian mounds, rising hundreds of meters above the surrounding lowlands, display bright regions rich in clay minerals. Image credit: ESA / TGO / CaSSIS / NASA / JPL / MSSS / Murray Lab.

Thousands of Mounds in Martian Mawrth Vallis Region Were Once Soaked with Water, Scientists Say

Jan 22, 2025 by News Staff

In a study published in the journal Nature Geoscience, planetary researchers used high-resolution images and compositional data captured by orbiters to...

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.

Jovian Clouds Consist of Ammonium Hydrosulfide, Study Suggests

Jan 13, 2025 by News Staff

Astronomers have long thought that the upper clouds of Jupiter, which create the planet’s iconic pale brown belts, are made of frozen ammonia. But a...

Pluto and Charon are the largest binary system in the known population of trans-Neptunian objects in the outer Solar System. Their shared external orbital axis suggests a linked evolutionary history and collisional origin. Their radii, 1,200 km and 600 km, respectively, and Charon’s wide circular orbit of about 16 Pluto radii require a formation mechanism that places a large mass fraction into orbit, with sufficient angular momentum to drive tidal orbital expansion. Denton et al. numerically modeled the collisional capture of Charon by Pluto using simulations that include material strength. Image credit: Denton et al., doi: 10.1038/s41561-024-01612-0.

Unexpected Mechanism Explains Formation of Pluto-Charon System

Jan 6, 2025 by News Staff

Planetary scientists at the University of Arizona say they have discovered an entirely new type of cosmic collision. Pluto and Charon are the largest binary...

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.

New Study Advances Understanding of Habitability of Ocean Worlds within Solar System and Beyond

Dec 30, 2024 by News Staff

In a new paper, planetary researchers from Texas A&M University and the University of Washington introduce a new thermodynamic concept called the centotectic...

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe approaching the Sun. Image credit: Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.

Parker Solar Probe Survives Closest-Ever Approach to Sun

Dec 30, 2024 by News Staff

On December 24, 2024, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe soared just 6.1 million km (3.8 million miles) above the surface of our home star, racing through the...

Frosty scene in the Australe Scopuli region at the south pole of Mars. Image credit: ESA / DLR / FU Berlin.

Carbon Dioxide Ice Turns Martian Polar Region White

Dec 18, 2024 by News Staff

Planetary scientists using the High Resolution Stereo Camera on ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft have captured stunning images of an enigmatic landscape...

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