Planetary Science News

The moons of our Solar System are brimming with unusual landscapes. However, sometimes they look a little more familiar, as in this new radar image from the Cassini orbiter. The image shows dark streaks carved into dunes reminiscent of those we might find on a beach on Earth, or raked with flowing lines in a Japanese Zen garden — but this scene is actually taking place on Saturn’s moon Titan. While our sand is composed of silicates, the ‘sand’ of these alien dunes is formed from grains of organic materials about the same size as particles of our beach sand. The small size and smoothness of these grains means that the flowing lines carved into the dunes show up as dark to the human eye. While previous images have spotted these eerily familiar patterns on Titan's dunes, this new image (colorized) shows them in greater detail. The image was obtained by Cassini's radar mapper on July 10, 2013. The vertical seam near the center is an artifact of radar image data processing. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Sci-News.com.

Researchers Unravel Origin and Chemical Composition of Titan’s Mysterious Dunes

Oct 22, 2019 by News Staff

Vast longitudinal dunes up to 330 feet (100 m) in height in the equatorial deserts of Saturn’s moon Titan are the Solar System’s most monumental surface...

Venus in real colors, processed from Mariner 10 images. Image credit: Mattias Malmer / NASA.

Venus May Never Have Been Wet and Warm World

Oct 16, 2019 by News Staff

A team of planetary researchers from the Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI) and elsewhere has found that a volcanic flow on Venus’ Ovda Regio highlands...

Lunar Water Ice May Have Multiple Sources, Researchers Say

Oct 11, 2019 by News Staff

Lunar orbiters such as India’s Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft and NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) recently detected water icy on the floor of some...

This image, taken by ESA’s Mars Express on November 16, 2018, shows Nirgal Vallis on Mars. Image credit: ESA / DLR / FU Berlin / CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO.

ESA’s Mars Express Orbiter Spots Ancient River System

Oct 10, 2019 by News Staff

A new image from the High Resolution Stereo Camera onboard ESA’s Mars Express shows the part of Nirgal Vallis, a dried-up river valley on Mars. This...

Lithology of sulfate enrichments in Gale Crater, Mars: (a) magnesium sulfate-enriched lithology within multiple parallel horizons (red arrows) on a large block of bedrock; (b) calcium sulfate enrichments as erosion-resistant horizons (red arrows) in mudstone; (c) multiple horizons (red arrows) where euhedral white crystals and heterogeneous calcium sulfate and magnesium sulfate enrichments were observed; (d) exposed blocks at Old Soaker with desiccation cracks; circles represent the locations of Curiosity’s ChemCam targets with calcium sulfate enrichments (red) and without (blue); (e, f) close-up images of a mudstone and a sandstone enriched in calcium sulfate; (g) close-up image of bedrock with white euhedral crystals along with empty casts/moulds. Image credit: Rapin et al, doi: 10.1038/s41561-019-0458-8.

Salt-Rich Deposits Point to Ancient Briny Ponds in Mars’ Gale Crater

Oct 8, 2019 by News Staff

NASA’s Curiosity rover recently discovered rocks enriched in mineral salts within the 3.7-billion-year-old Gale Crater on Mars. According to a new paper...

This artist’s painting of the south polar region of Enceladus shows massive jets of water ice being blasted into space. Image credit: Karl Kofoed / NASA.

Scientists Find Low-Mass Organic Compounds in Ice Grains from Enceladus’ Plume

Oct 3, 2019 by News Staff

Saturn’s moon Enceladus is erupting a plume of gas and ice grains from its south pole. According to new research using data from NASA’s Cassini mission,...

NASA’s InSight lander placed its seismometer on Mars on December 19, 2018. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Listen to Sounds of Marsquakes, Strange ‘Dinks and Donks’ on Mars

Oct 2, 2019 by News Staff

The Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS), a highly sensitive seismometer onboard NASA’s InSight lander, was designed to listen for marsquakes....

Observations suggest Venus may have had water oceans in its distant past; a land-ocean pattern like that above was used in a climate model to show how storm clouds could have shielded ancient Venus from strong sunlight and made the planet habitable. Image credit: NASA.

Venus May Have Been Habitable for Three Billion Years

Sep 23, 2019 by News Staff

The Venusian climate remained stable and temperate for about three billion years, until a mysterious global event resurfaced around 80% of the planet,...

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft in orbit around Saturn. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Saturn’s Rings are as Old as Solar System Itself, Study Suggests

Sep 18, 2019 by News Staff

The famous ring system of Saturn may be much older than some planetary scientists think, according to a new study published in the journal Nature Astronomy. NASA’s...

This artist’s concept of a lake at the north pole of Titan illustrates raised rims and rampartlike features such as those seen by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft around the moon’s Winnipeg Lacus. New research using Cassini radar data and modeling proposes that lake basins like these are likely explosion craters, which could have formed when liquid molecular nitrogen deposits within the crust warmed and quickly turned to vapor, blowing holes in the moon’s crust. This would have happened during a warming event (or events) that occurred in a colder, nitrogen-dominated period in Titan’s past. The study may provide evidence of these cold periods in Titan’s past, followed by a relative warming to conditions like those of today. Although Titan is frigid compared to Earth, methane in the atmosphere provides a greenhouse effect that warms the moon’s surface. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Titan’s Small Methane-Filled Lakes are Explosion Craters: Study

Sep 11, 2019 by News Staff

Small methane-filled lakes on the surface of Titan were likely formed by explosive, pressurized nitrogen just under the hazy moon’s surface, according...

Scanning electron microscopy image (colorized) showing edscottite in the polished Wedderburn section from the UCLA Meteorite Collection. Image credit: Ma & Rubin, doi: 10.2138/am-2019-7102.

Edscottite: Mineral ‘Never Seen in Nature’ Discovered inside Meteorite

Sep 7, 2019 by Sergio Prostak

A meteorite found in Australia — called the Wedderburn iron meteorite because of where it was found — contains edscottite, an iron-carbide...

A composite image of Venus as seen by JAXA’s Akatsuki spacecraft. Image credit: Institute of Space and Astronautical Science / Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

Unidentified ‘Absorbers’ Soak Up Solar Energy in Upper Cloud Layer of Venus

Sep 4, 2019 by News Staff

Venus’ surface has never been seen by the human eye because of opaque, highly reflective clouds which permanently cover the planet. What is curious about...

The four MMS spacecraft -- shown here in an artist’s concept -- have made more than 4,000 trips through the boundaries of Earth’s magnetic field. Image credit: NASA / Goddard / Conceptual Image Lab.

NASA’s MMS Spacecraft Makes First High-Resolution Measurements of Interplanetary Shock

Aug 16, 2019 by News Staff

Interplanetary shocks are a type of collisionless shock — events where particles transfer energy through electromagnetic fields instead of directly...

An artist’s impression of a collision between the proto-Jupiter and a massive protoplanet in the early Solar System. Image credit: K. Suda & Y. Akimoto, Mabuchi Design Office / Astrobiology Center, Japan.

Massive Planetary Embryo Crashed into Jupiter 4.5 Billion Years Ago

Aug 15, 2019 by News Staff

An energetic head-on collision between a large planetary embryo and the proto-Jupiter about 4.5 billion years ago could explain puzzling gravitational...

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

New Study Rules Out Wind Erosion of Rocks as Source of Methane on Mars

Aug 14, 2019 by News Staff

A new study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, has ruled out the possibility that the levels of methane detected in the Martian atmosphere could...

A high-resolution free-air gravity map based on data returned from NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission, overlaid on terrain based on NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) altimeter and camera data. The view is south-up, with the south pole near the horizon in the upper left. The terminator crosses the eastern rim of the Schrödinger basin. Gravity is painted onto the areas that are in or near the night side. Red corresponds to mass excesses and blue to mass deficits. Image credit: NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio.

Solar Wind and Meteoroids Erode Water Frost in Lunar Polar Craters, Planetary Researchers Say

Jul 24, 2019 by News Staff

Lunar orbiters recently detected water frost on the floor of some of the south polar craters, regions that are known to be very cold and can trap water....

An artist’s impression of a terraformed Mars. Image credit: Daein Ballard / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Mars Terraforming: Silica Aerogel Could Warm Widespread Regions of Martian Surface

Jul 16, 2019 by News Staff

New research by scientists from Harvard University, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the UK Centre for Astrobiology shows that widespread regions...

A dust storm underway at the edge of the north polar ice cap of Mars. The image was taken by Mars Express’ Visual Monitoring Camera on May 29, 2019. Image credit: ESA / GCP / UPV / EHU Bilbao.

ESA’s Mars Express Spots Dust Storms at Martian North Pole

Jul 8, 2019 by News Staff

ESA’s Mars Express orbiter has observed several local and regional dust storms brewing at the north pole of the Red Planet. A dust storm underway at...

Scientists Find Extraterrestrial Cyanide Compounds in Meteorites

Jun 26, 2019 by News Staff

A research team led by scientists from Boise State University and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center has identified several complex cyanide compounds...