Planetary Science News

Proton Aurora Discovered on Mars

On Earth, the Northern and Southern lights occur when the solar wind (electrically charged particles from the Sun) follow our planet’s geomagnetic field lines to the poles and collide with the upper atmosphere. Mars lacks a global magnetic field, so instead the solar wind piles up in front of Mars in a bow shock, which blocks charged particles from reaching the bulk of the atmosphere. However, in a process first observed by NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft, some solar wind protons can slip past the bow shock by first bonding with electrons from the Martian upper atmosphere to form hydrogen atoms. Because these hydrogen atoms are electrically neutral, they can pass through the bow shock and go on to create an ultraviolet proton aurora on the dayside of Mars. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
Jul 24, 2018 by News Staff

NASA’s MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution) spacecraft has found a new type of Martian aurora that occurs over much of the day side of the planet. A paper reporting this discovery is published in the journal Nature Astronomy. On Earth, the Northern and Southern lights occur when the solar wind (electrically charged particles from the Sun) follow our planet’s geomagnetic field lines to the poles and collide with the upper atmosphere....

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Mosaic of the Valles Marineris hemisphere of Mars projected into point perspective, a view similar to that which one would see from a spacecraft. The distance is 1,550 miles (2,500 km) from the surface of the planet. The mosaic is composed of 102 Viking Orbiter images of Mars. The center of the scene shows the entire Valles Marineris canyon system, over 1,240 miles (2,000 km) long and up to 5 miles (8 km) deep, extending form Noctis Labyrinthus, the arcuate system of graben to the west, to the chaotic terrain to the east. Many huge ancient river channels begin from the chaotic terrain from north-central canyons and run north. The three Tharsis volcanoes (dark red spots), each about 15.5 miles (25 km) high, are visible to the west. South of Valles Marineris is very ancient terrain covered by many impact craters. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Mars’ Atmosphere Acts as Single, Interconnected System

Jul 20, 2018 by News Staff

A new study using data from the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding (MARSIS) instrument on ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft has...

This image from NASA’s Galileo spacecraft shows a volcanic explosion on Io. Image credit: NASA / JPL / University of Arizon.

Juno Spots New Active Volcano on Jupiter Moon’s Io

Jul 16, 2018 by News Staff

Infrared data collected by NASA’s Juno spacecraft point to a new heat source in the southern hemisphere of Io — Jupiter’s third-largest moon...

Perspective view of Pluto’s highest mountains, Tenzing Montes, along the western margins of Sputnik Planitia. Image credit: Paul Schenk, Lunar and Planetary Institute.

Global Mosaic and Topographic Maps of Pluto and Charon Released

Jul 11, 2018 by News Staff

NASA’s New Horizons team has released the first official global mosaic and topographic maps of the dwarf planet Pluto and its largest moon, Charon. Perspective...

Sulaiman et al found a powerful interaction of plasma waves moving from Saturn to its rings and Enceladus. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Sounds of Saturn: Evidence of Communication between Saturn, Its Rings and Enceladus via Plasma Waves

Jul 10, 2018 by News Staff

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft’s high-inclination Grand Finale orbits offered an unprecedented new view of Saturn and its environment. New research from...

Nitrogen is most-commonly bonded with itself in diatomic N2 molecules; a new study confirms that it becomes a metallic fluid when subjected to the extreme pressure and temperature conditions found deep inside the Earth and other planets. Image credit: Alexander Goncharov.

Extreme Pressures and Temperatures Turn Nitrogen Metallic

Jul 10, 2018 by News Staff

New research indicates that nitrogen, one of the most-common elements in the Universe and the dominant gas in the atmosphere of Earth, becomes a metallic...

Jupiter’s aurora. Image credit: JAXA.

Juno Images Show Unusual ‘Footprint’ of Io and Ganymede on Jupiter’s Aurorae

Jul 6, 2018 by News Staff

High-resolution infrared images from the Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) on NASA’s Juno spacecraft show that, rather than casting one ‘shadow’...

This artist’s concept shows a young planetary system. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Inner Main-Belt Asteroids Are Remnants of Few Ancient Minor Planets, Study Shows

Jul 4, 2018 by News Staff

According to new research, at least 85% of 200,000 asteroids in the inner asteroid belt — the main source of Earth’s meteorites — originate...

Uranus. Image credit: NASA.

Massive Protoplanet Hit Young Uranus, Caused It To Tilt, Study Says

Jul 3, 2018 by News Staff

According to a Durham University-led study, young Uranus was hit by a protoplanet about twice the size of Earth that caused the ice giant to tilt and could...

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.

Cassini Scientists Find Complex Organic Molecules in Geyser-Like Plumes of Enceladus

Jun 28, 2018 by News Staff

Using data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, a research team led by University of Heidelberg scientists Frank Postberg and Nozair Khawaja found that complex,...

The Medusae Fossae Formation is one of the largest sedimentary deposits on Mars. This is an infrared image mosaic generated using Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) images from NASA’s Mars Odyssey orbiter mission; the small colored globe based on the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA). Image credit: NASA.

Volcanic Eruptions Spawned Mysterious Medusae Fossae Formation on Mars

Jun 19, 2018 by News Staff

Explosive volcanic eruptions are the likely source of the Medusae Fossae Formation, a massive, unusual deposit of soft rock near Mars’ equator, with...

Organic deposits in Ernutet crater on Ceres. Image credit: Kaplan et al / NASA.

Organic Matter on Dwarf Planet Ceres More Abundant than Thought

Jun 14, 2018 by News Staff

A new analysis of data collected by NASA’s Dawn orbiter suggests that organic molecules may exist in surprisingly high concentrations on the surface...

Cometary-type interplanetary dust particle collected by NASA aircraft. Image credit: Hope Ishii, University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Cometary-Type Interplanetary Particles Contain Presolar Dust, Researchers Find

Jun 13, 2018 by News Staff

Samples of interplanetary particles — collected from the upper atmosphere of Earth and believed to originate from comets — contain presolar...

Professors Meyers and Malinverno reconstructed the deep history of Earth’s relationship to the Moon. Image credit: Jonny Lindner.

Moon is Making Days on Earth Longer: Study

Jun 12, 2018 by News Staff

Around 1.4 billion years ago, a day on Earth lasted approximately 18.7 hours, according to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy...

An artist’s concept of the minor planet Sedna; the Sun appears as an extremely bright star instead of a large, warm disc observed from Earth; in the distance is a hypothetical small moon, which scientists believe may be orbiting this distant body. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Collective Gravity, Not Planet Nine, May Explain Orbits of Sedna and Other Detached Trans-Neptunian Objects

Jun 11, 2018 by News Staff

A team of planetary researchers at the University of Colorado at Boulder has offered up a new theory for the existence of strange trans-Neptunian objects...

Mosaic of the Valles Marineris hemisphere of Mars projected into point perspective, a view similar to that which one would see from a spacecraft. The distance is 1,550 miles (2,500 km) from the surface of the planet. The mosaic is composed of 102 Viking Orbiter images of Mars. The center of the scene shows the entire Valles Marineris canyon system, over 1,240 miles (2,000 km) long and up to 5 miles (8 km) deep, extending form Noctis Labyrinthus, the arcuate system of graben to the west, to the chaotic terrain to the east. Many huge ancient river channels begin from the chaotic terrain from north-central canyons and run north. The three Tharsis volcanoes (dark red spots), each about 15.5 miles (25 km) high, are visible to the west. South of Valles Marineris is very ancient terrain covered by many impact craters. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Curiosity Finds Organic Molecules in Ancient Rocks, Seasonal Methane Releases on Mars

Jun 8, 2018 by News Staff

NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity has detected organic molecules in 3-billion-year-old sedimentary rocks at the base of the Murray formation at Pahrump Hills,...

This artist’s concept of lightning distribution in Jupiter’s northern hemisphere incorporates a JunoCam image with artistic embellishments. Data from NASA’s Juno mission indicates that most of the lightning activity on Jupiter is near its poles. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / JunoCam.

Juno Scientists Solve Mysteries of Jupiter’s Lightning

Jun 7, 2018 by News Staff

Ever since NASA’s Voyager 1 flew past Jupiter in 1979, planetary researchers have wondered about the origin of Jovian lightning. That encounter confirmed...

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.

Researchers Find Methane Ice Dunes on Pluto

Jun 1, 2018 by News Staff

Wind-blown dunes are known on Earth, Mars, Venus, Saturn’s moon Titan, and Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko — and, now on Pluto, according to a...

This artist’s concept depicts the dry environment seen at Mars today versus the early Martian environment. Image credit: Simon Fraser University.

Iron-Rich Rocks are Best Place to Seek Fossil Evidence of Martian Life, Scientists Say

May 29, 2018 by News Staff

Iron-rich rocks near ancient lake sites on Mars are the most promising and best understood astropaleontological targets, according to new research led...

This high-resolution image of Pluto was taken by New Horizons on July 14. Pluto’s surface sports a remarkable range of subtle colors, enhanced in this view to a rainbow of pale blues, yellows, oranges, and deep reds. Many landforms have their own distinct colors, telling a complex geological and climatological story that scientists have only just begun to decode. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

Is Pluto ‘an Agglomeration of a Billion Comets’?

May 28, 2018 by News Staff

Planetary researchers working with data from NASA’s New Horizons and ESA’s Rosetta missions have developed a new theory for the formation of the dwarf...

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