Planetary Science News

In this image of Phobos, red arrows indicate a chain of small craters whose origin researchers were able to trace back to a primary impact at a large crater known as Grildrig. Image credit: M. Nayak & E. Asphaug / ESA / Mars Express.

Researchers Solve Mystery of Anomalous Grooves on Phobos

Sep 2, 2016 by News Staff

Anomalous grooves on Phobos, the larger of the two Martian moons, are the result of debris ejected by impacts eventually falling back onto the surface...

Earth-Moon system. Image credit: Comfreak.

Moon Mission Could Reveal the Story of Earth’s Journey around the Milky Way

Sep 1, 2016 by James Romero

A researcher’s proposal for an ESA mission to return to the Moon could lay the groundwork for a full-surface geological survey from a permanent lunar...

Map showing distribution of inverted channels (black lines) and valley networks (white lines) in Arabia Terra, Mars. Many of the inverted channels (e.g., southwest region of study area) are not associated with valley networks. Background image is Mars Orbital Laser Altimeter gridded topographic map. Image credit: J.M. Davis et al.

Planetary Researchers Find Evidence of Ancient River Systems in Mars’ Arabia Terra

Aug 23, 2016 by News Staff

An international team of scientists led by University College London researcher Joel Davis has identified over 10,500 miles (17,000 km) of ancient river...

Close Encounters between Centaurs and Gas Giants Form Our Solar System’s ‘Pinky Rings’

Aug 19, 2016 by James Romero

Our gas giants strip the icy surface off minor planets to form miniature versions of Saturn’s famous rings throughout the outer solar system, according...

Observations suggest Venus may have had water oceans in its distant past; a land-ocean pattern like that above was used in a climate model to show how storm clouds could have shielded ancient Venus from strong sunlight and made the planet habitable. Image credit: NASA.

Venus May Have Been Solar System’s First Habitable Planet

Aug 15, 2016 by News Staff

Venus today is an inhospitable place with surface temperatures approaching 864 degrees Fahrenheit (462 degrees Celsius) and an atmosphere 90 times as thick...

Cassini caught the sunlight glinting off Titan's seas and lakes filled with liquid methane or ethane. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / University of Arizona / University of Idaho.

Cassini Spots Liquid Methane-Filled Canyons on Titan

Aug 11, 2016 by Natali Anderson

Liquid methane-filled canyons hundreds to thousands of feet deep etch the surface of Saturn’s largest moon, according to researchers with NASA’s Cassini...

This false-color image from Cassini shows clouds in the atmosphere of Saturn. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute / Kevin M. Gill.

Stunning New Cassini Image Shows Saturn’s Clouds

Aug 10, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new infrared image from NASA’s Cassini orbiter shows enormous clouds in the northern hemisphere of the gas giant Saturn. This false-color image from...

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.

Widespread Volcanism on Planet Mercury Ended by 3.5 Billion Years Ago

Aug 9, 2016 by News Staff

According to new research published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, the main phase of volcanism on Mercury ended by 3.5 billion years ago,...

Dawn Orbiter Provides Clues to Internal Structure of Dwarf Planet Ceres

Aug 4, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

Using data from NASA’s Dawn spacecraft about Ceres’ gravity and topography, mission scientists have found that the dwarf planet is ‘differentiated,’...

Artist’s concept of the mechanism of heating from the Great Red Spot. Turbulent atmospheric flows above the storm produce both gravity waves and acoustic waves. Gravity waves are much like how a guitar string moves when plucked, while acoustic waves are compressions of the air (sound waves). Heating in the upper atmosphere 500 miles (805 km) above the storm is thought to be caused by a combination of these two wave types ‘crashing’ like ocean waves on a beach. Image credit: Karen Teramura, University of Hawaii at Manoa / James O’Donoghue, Boston University.

Great Red Spot Heats Jupiter’s Upper Atmosphere

Jul 28, 2016 by News Staff

The upper atmosphere above Jupiter’s Great Red Spot – the largest storm in the Solar System – is hundreds of degrees hotter than anywhere...

Venus in real colors, processed from Mariner 10 images. Image credit: Mattias Malmer / NASA.

Clouds High in Venus’ Atmosphere Reveal Features on Planet’s Surface

Jul 26, 2016 by News Staff

Using data from ESA’s Venus Express spacecraft, European planetary researchers have shown how weather patterns seen in Venus’ cloud layers are directly...

‘Morse code’ dunes on Mars. Image credit: NASA / JPL / University of Arizona.

‘Morse Code’ Dunes Spotted on Mars

Jul 12, 2016 by News Staff

The latest images released by NASA’s HiRISE (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) team show ‘Morse code’ dunes on the Martian surface. ‘Morse...

This composite image shows an infrared view of Titan. In this image blue represents wavelengths centered at 1.3 microns, green represents 2.0 microns, and red represents 5.0 microns. A view at visible wavelengths would show only Titan’s hazy atmosphere; the near-infrared wavelengths in this image allow Cassini’s vision to penetrate the haze and reveal the moon’s surface. The view looks toward terrain that is mostly on the Saturn-facing hemisphere of Titan. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute.

Hydrogen Cyanide: Key to Prebiotic Conditions on Saturn’s Moon Titan

Jul 6, 2016 by News Staff

A team of researchers from Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, has uncovered a chemical trail that suggests prebiotic conditions may exist on the surface...

Two sizes of ripples are evident in this December 13, 2015, view of a top of a Martian sand dune, from Curiosity. Sand dunes and the smaller type of ripples also exist on Earth. The larger ripples -- roughly 10 feet (3 m) apart -- are a type not seen on our planet nor previously recognized as a distinct type on Mars. Scale bar - 2 m (79 inches). Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS.

Scientists Discover New Type of Sand Dune — on Mars

Jul 1, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

A team of planetary scientists led by researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) has discovered a type of dune on Mars intermediate...

Occator crater (center) appears to be among the youngest features on Ceres. Dawn mission scientists estimate its age to be about 78 million years old. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA.

Hydrothermal Activity May Explain Mysterious Bright Spots on Ceres

Jul 1, 2016 by News Staff

Anomalously bright areas on the dwarf planet Ceres have the highest concentration of sodium carbonate ever seen outside our planet, says a new study published...

A false-color image of the narrow opal rim surrounding a bright metallic mineral inclusion in the Antarctic meteorite EET 83309; the circular holes in this image are spots where laser analyses have been performed. Image credit: Hilary Downes et al.

Scientists Find Tiny Pieces of Opal in Meteorite

Jun 29, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

Small pieces of the mineral opal have been found within a brecciated ureilite meteorite from Antarctica. According to a team of scientists led by Prof....

An illustration of the layer of dark hydrogen the team’s lab mimicry indicates would be found beneath the surface of gas giants like Jupiter. Image credit: Stewart McWilliams.

Gas Giant Planets May Contain Layers of ‘Dark Hydrogen,’ Say Physicists

Jun 24, 2016 by News Staff

On the surface of giant gaseous planets, hydrogen is a gas. But between this gaseous layer and the liquid metal hydrogen in the planet’s core lies a...

This New Horizons image shows Pluto’s small moon Nix. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

Pluto’s Small Moon Nix is Covered in Relatively Pure Water Ice

Jun 23, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

The latest data from NASA’s New Horizons probe reveal a water-ice signature on the surface of Nix, one of Pluto’s five known moons. This New Horizons...

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, doi: 10.1126/science.aad1815.

Pluto Likely Has a Hidden Liquid Ocean

Jun 21, 2016 by News Staff

When NASA’s New Horizons robotic spacecraft flew by Pluto in July 2015, it revealed clues that the enigmatic dwarf planet might have – or had at...