Planetary Science News

Titan is shown in an optical-infrared (atmosphere-surface) composite from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. In a liquid methane environment, vinyl cyanide may form membranes. Image credit: B. Saxton / NRAO / AUI / NSF / NASA.

ALMA Detects Vinyl Cyanide in Atmosphere of Titan

Jul 30, 2017 by News Staff

Researchers using archival data from the ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array) have found evidence that molecules of vinyl cyanide, also...

The atmospheric superrotation at the upper clouds of Venus. While the superrotation is present in both day and night sides of Venus, it seems more uniform in the day (AKATSUKI-UVI image, right), while in the night this seems to become more irregular and unpredictable (composite of Venus Express/VIRTIS images, left). Image credit: JAXA / ESA / J. Peralta, JAXA / R. Hueso, UPV/EHU.

Research Sheds New Light on Venus’ Superrotating Atmosphere

Jul 28, 2017 by Enrico de Lazaro

A team of researchers led by JAXA’s Institute of Space and Astronautical Science has discovered unexpected patterns of slow motion and stationary waves...

Map of ESPAT (effective single particle absorption thickness) values and associated water contents derived from Moon Mineralogy Mapper spectra. Numerous locations of increased water content (arrows) are associated with previously recognized pyroclastic deposits ranging in area from thousands of square km to much smaller deposits recently identified in high-resolution Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera images. A - Aristarchus Plateau, H – Harbinger, H&D - Humorum & Doppelmayer, O – Orientale, RB - Rima Bode, SA - Sinus Aestuum, SG - Sulpicius Gallus, TL - Taurus-Littrow, V – Vaporum. Image credit: Ralph E. Milliken & Shuai Li, doi: 10.1038/ngeo2993.

Chandrayaan-1 Orbiter Spots Water-Rich Volcanic Deposits on Lunar Surface

Jul 25, 2017 by News Staff

Ancient volcanic deposits distributed across the surface of the Moon contain unexpectedly high amounts of water compared with surrounding terrains, according...

This image shows Watson 021, a single H7 ordinary chondrite, weighing 135 g. The sample has a large crack, lined with alteration minerals, that runs down its middle and only one third of its fusion crust remains intact. This meteorite shows near complete oxidation of its reduced metal and sulfide phases making this a W4 chondrite. Watson 021 is extensively shocked, exhibiting globular silicate metal emulsions and shock veins that crosscut the sample. Tait et al found that microbial communities in samples of Nullarbor Plain soil are more diverse than those in Watson 021 and other meteorites, which are highly uniform in their species evenness and species richness. Image credit: Tait et al, doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2017.01227.

Research Opens New Way to Understand Possible Martian Life through Meteorites

Jul 20, 2017 by News Staff

New research from Monash University and the University of Queensland has added a new dimension to understanding life on the Red Planet with the discovery...

Artist’s conception of the dust and gas surrounding a newly formed planetary system. Image credit: NASA.

Earth’s Water Explained by Gas Giant Gluttony

Jul 19, 2017 by James Romero

Water on Earth, Mars and everywhere within the inner Solar System can be traced back to the rapid waist-expanding growth of Jupiter and Saturn, which knocked...

An artist’s rendering of the surface of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan. Image credit: Benjamin de Bivort, debivort.org / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Hydrocarbon Seas on Saturn’s Moon Titan are Very Calm

Jul 6, 2017 by News Staff

New research has found that most waves on Titan’s seas of liquid hydrocarbons are diminutive, reaching only about 1 cm (0.4 inches) high and 20 cm (8...

An illustration of an asteroid on its way to ancient Mars. Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO / Nathan Owen-Price / Sci.News.

Mars’ Two-Faces and Moons Could Result from an Early Cataclysmic Impact

Jul 4, 2017 by James Romero

Mars experienced a single colossal impact during its first 130 million years, the equivalent to the largest body in the today’s asteroid belt slamming...

Georgia Tech researchers propose that a ‘switch-like’ magnetosphere exists at Uranus in both equinox and solstice seasons, where the planetary rotation drives the interchange between an open magnetosphere and a closed magnetosphere each Uranus day. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Uranus Has ‘Switch-Like’ Magnetosphere

Jun 27, 2017 by News Staff

A new study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics suggests that the magnetosphere of the ice giant Uranus gets flipped on and...

Jupiter is the oldest planet in the Solar System. Image credit: NASA.

Jupiter is Solar System’s Oldest Planet, Planetary Researchers Say

Jun 12, 2017 by News Staff

The gas giant Jupiter is not only the most massive planet in our Solar System, but it’s also the oldest, according to an international team of planetary...

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.

Could Pluto’s Orbital Wobbles Create Its Mysterious Glacial Crazy-Paving?

Jun 6, 2017 by James Romero

Strange fields of polygons seen during New Horizons’ visit to Pluto could be explained by million year variations in the dwarf planet’s orbit caused...

$This enhanced-color view of Enceladus is largely of the southern hemisphere and includes the south polar terrain at the bottom of the image. Ancient craters remain somewhat pristine in some locales, but have clearly relaxed in others. Northward-trending fractures, likely caused by a change in the moon’s rate of rotation and the consequent flattening of the moon’s shape, rip across the southern hemisphere. The south polar terrain is marked by a striking set of ‘blue’ fractures and encircled by a conspicuous and continuous chain of folds and ridges, testament to the forces within Enceladus that have yet to be silenced. The mosaic was created from 21 false-color frames taken during Cassini’s close approaches to Enceladus on March 9 and July 14, 2005. Images taken using filters sensitive to UV, visible and IR light (spanning wavelengths from 338 to 930 nm) were combined to create the individual frames. Image credit: NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute.$

Enceladus May Have Tipped Over in Distant Past

Jun 5, 2017 by News Staff

While combing through data gathered by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft during flybys of Enceladus, the sixth-largest of Saturn’s moons, researchers have...

$Pale zones called ‘halos’ border bedrock fractures visible in this 2015 image (colorized) from the Curiosity rover. Measurements overlaid on the image offer a sense of scale for the size of these fractures. The rover team determined that the halos are rich in silica, a clue to the duration of wet environmental conditions long ago. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.$