Planetary Science News

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

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.
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 exist on Saturn’s moon Titan, where liquid hydrocarbons (methane and ethane) take the place of water. However, studying Titan’s coastlines, especially river deltas, is challenging due to limited imaging data and the unknown nature of its materials. To overcome these challenges, planetary scientists...

read more...
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...

This illustration shows NASA’s Lucy spacecraft passing one of the Trojan asteroids near Jupiter. Image credit: Southwest Research Institute.

Lucy Captures Its First Images of Main-Belt Asteroid Donaldjohanson

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...

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...

© 2011-2025. Sci.News. All Rights Reserved. | Back to top