Planetary Science News

Pluto and Charon’s Ancient Craters Indicate Deficit of Very Small Kuiper Belt Objects

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.
Mar 1, 2019 by News Staff

Collisions between bodies in our Solar System produce impact craters on large objects at a rate that depends on the population of impacting small bodies. By mapping the scars of ancient impacts on the surfaces of Pluto and its moon Charon, planetary researchers have discovered a surprising lack of very small objects (from 300 feet to 1 mile, or 91 m to 1.6 km, in diameter) in the Kuiper Belt. This Pluto mosaic was made from New Horizons LORRI images...

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This image from ESA’s Mars Express shows a valley network on Mars. This oblique perspective view was generated using a digital terrain model and Mars Express data gathered on November 19, 2018. Image credit: ESA / DLR / FU Berlin / CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO.

ESA’s Mars Express Orbiter Spots Ancient River Valley Network

Feb 27, 2019 by News Staff

Mars today is a cold, dry world, but it may not always have been so. Recent studies increasingly indicate that the planet once had a thicker, denser atmosphere...

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.

Juno Gets Close Look at Jupiter’s Turbulent Clouds

Feb 27, 2019 by News Staff

NASA has released new images taken by the Juno probe of Jupiter, featuring giant storms and swirling clouds in the gas giant’s atmosphere. This image...

The extent of Earth’s geocorona. Image credit: ESA.

Earth’s Hydrogen Geocorona Extends Well Beyond Moon

Feb 22, 2019 by News Staff

Recent observations from the NASA/ESA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) show that the Earth’s hydrogen envelope reaches up to 391,500 miles...

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

Mars Weather: Daily Reports from NASA’s InSight Lander

Feb 20, 2019 by News Staff

Beginning Tuesday, February 19, 2019, NASA’s InSight lander will provide a daily report of atmospheric weather conditions on Mars. This tool, developed...

The south pole of Mars. Image credit: NASA.

Underground Volcanism on Mars May Have Been Active Extremely Recently

Feb 14, 2019 by News Staff

Recent radar observations from ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft were interpreted as evidence for melting beneath the south polar ice cap of Mars. Now, a...

Illustration of a plasma jet impact (yellow) generating standing waves at the boundary (blue) of Earth’s magnetic shield (green). Image credit: E. Masongsong, UCLA / M. Archer, QMUL / H. Hietala, UTU.

Earth’s Magnetopause Vibrates Like Giant Drum When Hit by Strong Impulses

Feb 13, 2019 by News Staff

As strong impulses strike the Earth’s magnetopause, the abrupt boundary between the planet’s magnetosphere and the surrounding plasma, ripples travel...

The bright spots near the center of Occator crater are shown in enhanced color in this view from NASA’s Dawn robotic spacecraft. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA / PSI / LPI.

Ceres’ Crust Kept Cryomagma Liquid for Millions of Years, Researchers Say

Feb 13, 2019 by News Staff

NASA’s Dawn mission recently spotted mysterious bright spots in the center of Occator Crater on the dwarf planet Ceres. According to a new study published...

A selfie taken by NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 2291 (January 15, 2019) at the ‘Rock Hall’ drill site, located on Vera Rubin Ridge. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS.

Curiosity Makes First Surface Gravity Measurements on Mars

Feb 1, 2019 by News Staff

Gravimetry — the measurement of tiny changes in gravitational fields — can be used to probe the internal structure of Earth and other planets....

Greenwood et al discovered that water was present on Earth at an early stage in its evolution and survived the giant impact, which formed the Moon. This is an artist’s depiction of a catastrophic collision between two celestial bodies; such an impact between the proto-Earth and Theia likely formed the Moon. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Earth’s Essential Elements for Life Probably Came from Another Planet

Jan 24, 2019 by News Staff

Planetary researchers believe that our Moon was created more than 4.4 billion years ago in a catastrophic collision between proto-Earth and a hypothetical...

An artist’s concept of a dust storm on Titan. Image credit: NASA / ESA / IPGP / Labex UnivEarthS / University Paris Diderot.

‘Cooking’ of Ancient Organics Created Titan’s Mysterious Atmosphere

Jan 24, 2019 by News Staff

New research tackles one of the greatest mysteries about Saturn’s moon Titan: the origin of its present-day nitrogen atmosphere. Published in the Astrophysical...

Saturn’s Great Northern Storm churning through the atmosphere in the planet’s northern hemisphere overtakes itself as it encircles the planet in this true-color view from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. This picture, captured on February 25, 2011, was taken about 12 weeks after the storm began, and the clouds by this time had formed a tail that wrapped around the gas giant. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute.

Length of Saturn’s Day Revised: 10 Hours 33 Minutes and 38 Seconds

Jan 22, 2019 by News Staff

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft observed Saturn’s ring system in unprecedented detail, and a team of planetary researchers from the University of California...

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

Saturn’s Rings are 10 to 100 Million Years Old, Much Younger than Planet

Jan 18, 2019 by News Staff

In the final phase of NASA’s Cassini mission, the spacecraft dived between Saturn and its innermost ring, at altitudes 1,616-2,423 miles (2,600-3,900...

It’s raining on Titan. Image credit: David A. Hardy, AstroArt / NASA.

Cassini Team Finds Evidence of Summer Rainfall at Titan’s North Pole

Jan 17, 2019 by News Staff

Observations from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft provide evidence of rainfall on the north pole of Saturn’s moon Titan. The rainfall would be the first...

JunoCam acquired three images of Io prior to when it entered eclipse, all showing a volcanic plume illuminated beyond the terminator; the image shown here, reconstructed from red, blue and green filter images, was acquired at 12:20 p.m. GMT on December 21, 2018; Juno was 186,411 miles (300,000 km) from Io. Image credit: NASA / SwRI / MSSS.

Juno Observes Volcanic Plume on Io

Jan 3, 2019 by News Staff

NASA’s Juno orbiter has captured images of a volcanic plume on Jupiter’s moon Io during the mission’s 17th flyby of the giant planet. JunoCam acquired...

Perspective view of Korolev crater. Image credit: ESA / DLR / FU Berlin / CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO.

ESA’s Mars Express Orbiter Spots Water Ice-Filled Crater

Dec 21, 2018 by News Staff

New images from the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft show an impact crater in the northern lowlands of Mars. Known...

With Saturn hanging in the blackness and sheltering NASA’ Cassini spacecraft from the Sun’s blinding glare, the probe viewed Saturn’s rings as never before, revealing previously unknown faint rings and even glimpsing its home world. Image credit: NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute.

Saturn’s Rings are Disappearing at Rapid Pace

Dec 18, 2018 by News Staff

A team of planetary researchers from the United States and the United Kingdom has discovered that Saturn’s rings are younger than previously thought...

An artist’s rendering of the Europa ‘tunnelbot.’ Image credit: Alexander Pawlusik, LERCIP Internship Program, NASA’s Glenn Research Center.

Nuclear-Powered Tunneling Probe to Search for Extraterrestrial Life on Europa

Dec 17, 2018 by News Staff

A liquid ocean in contact with a silicate interior makes Jupiter’s icy moon Europa a prime location for life. This possibility is compounded if geologic...

This false-color image shows the dwarf planet Ceres. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA.

Dwarf Planet Ceres Has Carbon-Rich Surface, Study Suggests

Dec 13, 2018 by News Staff

The surface of the dwarf planet Ceres may contain several times the concentration of carbon than is present in the most carbon-rich, primitive meteorites...

This image from InSight’s robotic-arm mounted Instrument Deployment Camera shows the instruments on the spacecraft’s deck, with the Martian surface of Elysium Planitia in the background. The color-calibrated picture was acquired on December 4, 2018 (Sol 8); in the foreground, a copper-colored hexagonal cover protects the SEIS seismometer; the gray dome behind SEIS is the wind and thermal shield, which will be placed over SEIS; to the left is a black cylindrical instrument, the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Probe (HP3); HP3 will drill up to 16 feet (5 m) below the Martian surface, measuring heat released from the interior of the planet; above the deck is InSight’s robotic arm, with the stowed grapple directly facing the camera; to the right can be seen a small portion of one of the two solar panels that help power InSight and part of the UHF communication antenna. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

InSight Records Sound of Wind on Mars

Dec 10, 2018 by News Staff

On December 1, 2018, NASA’s InSight lander captured a haunting low rumble caused by vibrations from the Martian wind, estimated to be blowing between...

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