Planetary Science News

Illustration of the electrodynamic interaction between Enceladus and Saturn; the primary Alfvén wing is shown in blue, and the reflected Alfvén wings in magenta; the arrow indicates the corotation direction of the Enceladus plasma torus. Image credit: Fabrice Etifier, École Polytechnique.

Enceladus Plays Bigger Role in Shaping Saturn’s Space Environment than Previously Thought

Feb 9, 2026 by News Staff

A new analysis of data from four instruments aboard NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has demonstrated the crucial role that Saturn’s small icy moon Enceladus...

Magellan radar image of Venus displaying several pit chains and the identified skylight, marked as A, potentially providing access to the subsurface (i.e., empty void); the white arrow indicates the radar illumination direction. Image credit: NASA / Carrer et al., doi: 10.1038/s41467-026-68643-6.

Hidden Caves on Venus? New Analysis Suggests Massive Lava Tube beneath Venusian Surface

Feb 9, 2026 by Sergio Prostak

Using archival radar data from NASA’s Magellan spacecraft, planetary researchers have identified a vast underground conduit beneath the surface in the...

This graphic shows the long-chain organic molecules decane, undecane, and dodecane, and NASA’s Curiosity rover. Image credit: NASA / Dan Gallagher.

Mars Organics Can’t Be Fully Explained by Geological Processes Alone, NASA Study Says

Feb 9, 2026 by Natali Anderson

Known non-biological sources, from meteorites to surface chemistry, fall short of accounting for organic compounds detected by NASA’s Curiosity rover,...

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.

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

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...

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...

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...