Planetary Science News

Artist’s impression of New Horizons encountering a Pluto-like object in the distant Kuiper Belt. Image credit: NASA / JHUAPL / SwRI / Alex Parker.

Scientists Determine Color of Kuiper Belt Objects JR1 and MU69

Oct 19, 2016 by Natali Anderson

According to a team of researchers led by Southwest Research Institute scientist Simon Porter, Kuiper belt objects (KBO) JR1 and MU69 are as red as, if...

MAVEN obtained this image of rapid cloud formation on Mars in July 2016. Image credit: NASA / MAVEN / University of Colorado.

MAVEN Ultraviolet Images Reveal Hidden Secrets of Mars

Oct 18, 2016 by News Staff

New images from NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft show the ultraviolet glow from the Red Planet’s atmosphere in detail,...

Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko likely spent millions of years in the scattering disk, a distant portion of the Kuiper belt. Image credit: Mattia Galiazzo / Paul Wiegert.

Researchers Predict Possible Birthplace of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

Oct 17, 2016 by News Staff

Using statistical analysis and computing, a duo of researchers at Western University in Canada has charted a path that likely pinpoints the origins of...

Two 2001 images from NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor orbiter show a dramatic change in the Red Planet’s appearance when haze raised by dust-storm activity in the south became globally distributed. At left, an image from late June 2001 shows clear conditions over much of Mars, with regional dust-storm activity occurring in the Hellas basin (bright oval feature) near the edge of the south polar cap. At right, a July 2001 image from the same perspective shows the planet almost completely enveloped. Dust extends to altitudes of more than 37 miles (60 km) during global-scale dust storms. Image credit: NASA / JPL / MSSS.

Global-Scale Dust Storm Could Hit Mars within Months, Warn NASA Researchers

Oct 10, 2016 by News Staff

A global-scale dust storm could envelop the Red Planet within the next few months, according to planetary researchers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory...

This image shows an artist concept of NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

NASA’s MAVEN Probe Celebrates One Martian Year in Orbit around the Red Planet

Oct 4, 2016 by News Staff

NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) spacecraft, sent to Mars to explore its upper atmosphere, ionosphere and interactions with the...

This image from Curiosity’s Mast Camera shows inclined strata at Zabriskie Plateau, about a third of a mile (0.5 km) northeast of the ‘Pahrump Hills’ outcrop at the base of Mount Sharp, the central peak within the Gale Crater on Mars. These sedimentary rocks are inclined toward the south and are also interpreted as the deposits of small deltas building out into a lake. The Mast Camera’s left-eye camera recorded the component frames of this mosaic on July 22, 2014, during the 696th Martian day of Curiosity’s work on Mars. The color has been approximately white-balanced to resemble how the scene would appear under daytime lighting conditions on Earth. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS.

Curiosity Takes Close Look at Interactions between Mars’ Crust and Atmosphere

Oct 2, 2016 by News Staff

Curiosity has found evidence that chemistry in the Martian surface material contributed dynamically to the makeup of the planet’s atmosphere over time. This...

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.

Marsquakes Could Support Life Deep within the Red Planet

Sep 28, 2016 by James Romero

The combination of seismic activity and water locked away at depth within Mars could be releasing sufficient hydrogen gas to support communities of microorganisms,...

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.

Hubble Space Telescope Directly Images Possible Water Plumes on Europa

Sep 26, 2016 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has imaged what may be water vapor plumes erupting off the surface of Europa, the sixth-closest moon of Jupiter and...

This colorful view of Mercury was produced by using images from the color base map imaging campaign during MESSENGER’s primary mission. These colors are not what Mercury would look like to the human eye, but rather the colors enhance the chemical, mineralogical, and physical differences between the rocks that make up the planet’s surface. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Carnegie Institution of Washington.

Mercury is Tectonically Active Planet, Planetary Scientists Say

Sep 26, 2016 by News Staff

Recent images from NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft reveal small fault scarps on Mercury’s surface. These cliff-like landforms are small enough that planetary...

In 2012 Cassini spotted a cloud system called the south polar vortex in Titan’s atmosphere at an altitude of about 186 miles. The spacecraft’s instrument has now detected a massive ice cloud below it. This image was taken by Cassini in 2013. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute.

Cassini Spots Exotic Ice Cloud in Titan’s Stratosphere

Sep 22, 2016 by News Staff

Cassini mission scientists think the appearance of a cloud of dicyanoacetylene ice in Titan’s stratosphere is explained by ‘solid-state’ chemistry...

This image was taken on April 25, 2016 from a distance of approximately 1.9 million miles (3 million km) from Saturn. The view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft angle of 55 degrees. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute.

Cassini Snaps Stunning New Images of Saturn

Sep 17, 2016 by News Staff

The latest images from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft show the northern hemisphere of Solar System’s second-largest planet, as that part of the gas giant...

Valleys younger than better-known ancient valley networks on Mars are evident on the landscape in the northern Arabia Terra region, particularly in the area mapped here with color-coded topographical information overlaid onto a photo mosaic. The area includes a basin informally named ‘Heart Lake’ at upper left. Data from NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor orbiter are coded here as white and purple for lower elevations, yellow for higher elevation. The elevation information is combined with a mosaic of images from NASA’s Mars Odyssey orbiter, covering an area about 120 miles (about 190 km) wide. The mapped area is centered near 35.91 degrees north latitude, 1 degree east longitude on Mars. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / ASU.

Mars Had Lakes, Snowmelt-Fed Streams More Recently than Thought

Sep 16, 2016 by News Staff

ESA’s Mars Express, NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Global Surveyor have sent back new images and data from the Red Planet that indicate...

This impressive view of Charon was captured on July 14, 2015. Charon’s color palette is not as diverse as Pluto’s; most striking is the reddish north (top) polar region, informally named Mordor Macula. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

Researchers Discover Why Charon’s North Polar Cap is Red

Sep 15, 2016 by News Staff

Scientists on NASA’s New Horizons mission have learned that reddish material in the north polar region of Pluto’s biggest moon, Charon, is chemically...

This view from Curiosity’s Mast Camera shows a sloping hillside within the ‘Murray Buttes’ region on lower Mount Sharp. The rim of Gale Crater, where the rover has been active since landing in 2012, is visible in the distance, through the dusty haze. The image was taken on September 8, 2016, during the 1454th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity’s work on Mars. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS.

Curiosity Finds Spectacular Rock Formations on Mars

Sep 14, 2016 by News Staff

A set of new photos taken by NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover reveals signs of past geologic activity. This view from Curiosity’s Mast Camera shows a sloping...

Moon. Image credit: Gregory H. Revera / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Moon is Proto-Earth’s Mantle, Researchers Say

Sep 12, 2016 by News Staff

Measurements of potassium in lunar and terrestrial rocks have disproved the leading hypotheses for the origin of Earth’s sole natural satellite. Moon....

Rosetta NavCam image taken on 14 March 2015 at 85.7 km from the center of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko; it has been cleaned to remove the more obvious bad pixels and cosmic ray artefacts, and intensities have been scaled. Image credit: ESA / Rosetta / NAVCAM / CC BY-SA IGO 3.0.

Rosetta Finds Solid Organic Matter in Dust Particles from 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

Sep 8, 2016 by News Staff

ESA’s Rosetta orbiter has made the first unambiguous detection of solid organic matter in dust grains ejected by comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. This...

Snowcapped mountains in the southernmost part of Pluto. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

New Horizons Finds Methane Snow-Capped Mountains near Pluto’s South Polar Region

Sep 6, 2016 by News Staff

A new close-up image from NASA’s New Horizons robotic spacecraft reveals snowcapped mountains in the southernmost part of Pluto. Snowcapped mountains...

The ratio of volatile elements in Earth’s mantle suggests that virtually all of the planet’s life-giving carbon came from a collision with an embryonic planet about 100 million years after Earth formed. Image credit: A. Passwaters / Rice University / NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Proto-Earth Collided with Mercury-Like Planetary Embryo about 4.4 Billion Years Ago

Sep 6, 2016 by News Staff

In a new paper in the journal Nature Geoscience, researchers offer a new answer to a long-debated question: how did carbon-based life develop on Earth,...

Juno Sends Back Incredible New Images of Jupiter

Sep 3, 2016 by News Staff

NASA’s Juno spacecraft has beamed back the most detailed images yet of the Solar System’s king of the planets, Jupiter. This montage of ten JunoCam...