Planetary Science News

Great Red Spot Getting Taller as It Shrinks, Planetary Scientists Say

This image of the Great Red Spot was taken on July 10, 2017, as Juno performed its seventh close flyby of Jupiter. At the time the image was taken, the spacecraft was 8,648 miles (13,917 km) from the tops of the clouds of the planet. Image credit: NASA / SwRI / MSSS.
Mar 15, 2018 by News Staff

Planetary scientists have noticed that Jupiter’s most distinctive feature — the Great Red Spot (GRS) — has been getting smaller in area over time. Because of this, many expected to see the wind speeds inside the GRS increasing as the storm was shrinking. But surprisingly, this isn’t the case — the wind speeds aren’t changing; instead, the GRS is actually growing taller, and is deepening in color as well. This enhanced-color...

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This image of Phobos was acquired using the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) during Mars Express orbit 17,342 on September 12, 2017. Image credit: ESA / DLR / FU Berlin / CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO.

ESA’s Mars Express Spacecraft Observes Phobos and Deimos

Mar 13, 2018 by News Staff

New images and video captured by ESA’s Mars Express orbiter show two small Martian moons Phobos and Deimos drifting in front of the giant planet Saturn...

JunoCam took this image during its eleventh close flyby of Jupiter on February 7, 2018. Image credit: NASA / JPL / SwRI / MSSS / David Marriott.

Juno Mission Team Reports New Results from Jupiter

Mar 8, 2018 by News Staff

New data gathered by NASA’s Juno orbiter indicate that Jupiter’s winds run deep into its atmosphere and last longer than similar atmospheric processes...

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.

Juno Finds Clusters of Cyclones on Jupiter’s Poles

Mar 8, 2018 by News Staff

Jupiter has no tilt as it moves, so its poles have never been visible from our planet. But in the past two years, with NASA’s Juno spacecraft, researchers...

Dr. Moriarty and Professor Pieters identified four distinct compositional regions within and around the South Pole-Aitken basin on the Moon. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

New Research Details Mineralogy of Enormous Impact Crater on the Far Side of the Moon

Mar 1, 2018 by News Staff

A team of planetary scientists from Brown University and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center has mapped the mineralogy of the South Pole-Aitken basin,...

If the Moon has enough water, and if it’s reasonably convenient to access, future explorers might be able to use it as drinking water or to convert it into hydrogen and oxygen for rocket fuel or oxygen to breathe. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Water is Widely Distributed across Lunar Surface, Study Suggests

Feb 26, 2018 by News Staff

A new study published in the journal Nature Geoscience indicates that water may be more prevalent on the lunar surface than previously thought. If the...

Mars is kept company by two cratered moons -- an inner moon named Phobos and an outer moon named Deimos. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Malin Space Science Systems / Texas A&M University.

Tiny Martian Moons Hint at Red Planet’s Adolescent Rejection

Feb 13, 2018 by James Romero

Like a teenage diary you can’t throw away, Mars might carry a reminder of its difficult formative years in its tiny moons. A paper published by the Royal...

Two 2001 images from the Mars Orbiter Camera on NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor show a dramatic change in the planet’s appearance when haze raised by dust-storm activity in the south became globally distributed. The images were taken about a month apart. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS.

Martian Dust Storms Linked to Atmospheric Gas Escape

Jan 25, 2018 by News Staff

Martian dust storms play a role in the ongoing process of gas escaping from the top of the planet’s atmosphere, according to a new study using observations...

Top: stereographic polar projections of Titan’s topography with the South Pole left and the North Pole right; Ontario Lacus and the each of the large northern seas are found in local depressions. Bottom: equicylindrical projection of Titan’s topography. All maps have been corrected for the geoid. Image credit: Corlies et al, doi: 10.1002/2017GL075518.

Planetary Researchers Create New Global Topographic Map of Saturn’s Moon Titan

Jan 19, 2018 by News Staff

Using data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, a team of planetary researchers led by Cornell University has produced a new global topographic map of Titan,...

Gale Crater is 96 miles (154 km) in diameter and holds a layered mountain rising about 3 miles (5 km) above the crater floor. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / ASU / UA.

Mars’ Turbulent Winds Can Make Mountains in Impact Craters

Jan 15, 2018 by News Staff

In a paper published in the journal Physical Review E, a duo of fluid dynamics experts proposes a solution to one of long-standing Martian mysteries. The...

This high-resolution HiRISE image shows a detailed subsection of an icy scarp on Mars in enhanced color. Image credit: NASA / JPL / University of Arizona / USGS.

New HiRISE Images Show 3D Structure of Martian Ice Sheets

Jan 12, 2018 by News Staff

New images from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter reveal never-before-observed details...

A salt crystal recovered from the Zag meteorite. Image credit: Queenie Chan, Open University.

Scientists Find Primordial Organic Matter in Two Meteorites

Jan 11, 2018 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the United States, UK and Japan has found liquid water and a mix of complex organic compounds in 4.5-billion-year-old salt crystals...

This image shows how the solar wind transports ions of oxygen from the Earth’s atmosphere to the Moon. Image credit: Osaka University / NASA.

Moon Has Earth’s Oxygen, Planetary Researchers Say

Jan 2, 2018 by News Staff

A team of Japanese planetary researchers led by Osaka University’s Professor Kentaro Terada has discovered that the solar wind and Earth’s magnetic...

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.

Saturn’s Northern Storms Cause Disturbances in Its ‘Heartbeat’

Dec 31, 2017 by News Staff

Giant storms in Saturn’s northern hemisphere can disturb atmospheric patterns at the ringed giant’s equator, according to new research published in...

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

Study: Martian Surface Water Was Absorbed by Planet’s Crust

Dec 24, 2017 by News Staff

According to a new study published in the journal Nature, the Sun may not have evaporated away all of the Martian surface water after all; instead, Mars’...

A 1.5-mm-long impact track of a meteoroid captured in aerogel exposed to space by the European Retrievable Carrier (EURECA) spacecraft. Image credit: NASA / ESA.

Simulations Reveal Why Meteoroids Explode Before They Reach Earth

Dec 13, 2017 by News Staff

According to a paper published in the journal Meteoritics & Planetary Science, Earth’s atmosphere is a better shield from meteoroids than scientists...

This full-disc image of Jupiter was taken on 21 April 2014 with Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3. Image credit: NASA / ESA / A. Simon, Goddard Space Flight Center.

NASA’s Juno Orbiter Explores Depths of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot

Dec 12, 2017 by News Staff

Data collected by Juno during its first pass over Jupiter’s mysterious, roiling storm called the Great Red Spot in July 2017 indicate that this famous...

Mars may have been enveloped in a steamy atmosphere as the planet’s crust cooled and solidified. That ‘steam bath’ could have created many of the clay mineral deposits that have long been attributed to water flow on or just beneath the Martian surface. Image credit: Kevin Cannon.

Research Suggests Martian Clays Formed in Ancient ‘Steam Bath’

Dec 7, 2017 by News Staff

On Mars, phyllosilicate (clay) minerals are widespread in terrains that date back to the Noachian period, 4.1 to 3.7 billion years ago. Phyllosilicates...

Marchi et al modeled the protracted period of bombardment after the Moon formed, determining that impactor metals may have descended into Earth’s core. This artistic rendering illustrates a large impactor crashing into the young Earth. Light brown and gray particles indicate the projectile’s mantle (silicate) and core (metal) material, respectively. Image credit: Southwest Research Institute.

Large Planetesimals Delivered More Mass to Proto-Earth than Previously Thought

Dec 5, 2017 by News Staff

After the Moon’s formation, Earth experienced a protracted bombardment by large (over 1,500 km in diameter) planetesimals. Dr. Simone Marchi, a researcher...

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.

Research Provides New Evidence of Plate Tectonics in Europa’s Ice Shell

Dec 5, 2017 by News Staff

A process called subduction — when a tectonic plate slides underneath another and sinks deep into a planetary body’s interior — is physically...

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