Planetary Science News

The Zhurong landing site. Image credit: Wu et al., doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-75507-w.

Ancient Coastline Spotted in Martian Utopia Region

Nov 7, 2024 by News Staff

Sedimentary mineral deposits found on the surface of Mars may have been left by an ancient sea 3.5 billion years ago. New results from China’s Tianwen-1/Zhurong...

Perseverance captured the silhouette of Phobos as it passed in front of the Sun on September 30, 2024. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / ASU / MSSS.

Perseverance Views Transit of Martian Moon Phobos across the Sun

Oct 30, 2024 by News Staff

NASA’s Perseverance rover captured the silhouette of Phobos — the larger and inner of the two natural satellites of Mars — as it passed in...

The white edges along these gullies in Mars’ Terra Sirenum are believed to be dusty water ice. Khuller et al. think meltwater could form beneath the surface of this kind of ice, providing a place for possible photosynthesis. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / University of Arizona.

Meltwater beneath Martian Ice Could Support Microbial Life, Researchers Suggest

Oct 17, 2024 by News Staff

On Earth, solar radiation can transmit down to multiple meters within ice, depending on its optical properties. Organisms within ice can harness energy...

This is an artist's impression of an asteroid breaking up. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Most of Earth’s Meteorites Came from Few Asteroid Breakup Events, Research Suggests

Oct 16, 2024 by News Staff

New research shows that approximately 70% of meteorites originate from at least three recent break-ups of massive asteroids. This is an artist’s...

(3122) Florence will pass safely by Earth on September 1, at a distance of about 4.4 million miles. Image credit: University of Colorado.

Earth’s New Mini-Moon is Sign of Tremendous Potential for Space Mining, Scientists Say

Oct 16, 2024 by News Staff

2024 PT5, a new mini-moon of our planet, arrived in Earth’s orbit on September 29, 2024. 2024 PT5 will experience a temporarily captured flyby in...

Europa Clipper lifts off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 12:06 p.m. EDT on October 14, 2024. Image credit: NASA / Kim Shiflett.

NASA’s Europa Clipper Spacecraft Launches to Jupiter’s Icy Moon

Oct 14, 2024 by News Staff

Europa Clipper lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 12:06 p.m. EDT on October 14, 2024 to begin a six-year journey to Jupiter’s...

Simon et al. measured the Great Red Spot’s size, shape, brightness, color, and vorticity over one full oscillation cycle. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Amy Simon, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / Joseph DePasquale, STScI.

Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is Wobbling and Fluctuating in Size, Hubble Observations Show

Oct 14, 2024 by News Staff

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope observed Jupiter’s most distinctive feature, the Great Red Spot, with on eight dates over a single,...

An artist’s concept of an early Mars with liquid water (blue areas) on its surface. Image credit: NASA / MAVEN / Lunar and Planetary Institute.

Carbonate Minerals from Gale Crater Shed Light on Ancient Martian Climate

Oct 8, 2024 by News Staff

Carbonate minerals are of particular interest in paleoenvironmental research as they are an integral part of the carbon and water cycles, both of which...

This illustration shows the distribution of permanently shadowed regions (in blue) on the Moon poleward of 80 degrees south latitude. They are superimposed on a digital elevation map of the lunar surface (gray) from the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter instrument on board NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Image credit: NASA / GSFC / Timothy P. McClanahan.

Lunar Ice Deposits are More Extensive than Previously Thought

Oct 3, 2024 by News Staff

Prior studies found signs of ice in the permanently shadowed regions near the south pole of the Moon, including areas within Cabeus, Haworth, Shoemaker...

The center of this infographic shows the sharpest-ever image of the cloud of charged particles trapped in Earth’s magnetic field, while the insets show measurements of high-energy ions and electrons detected along the JUICE’s flyby route. Image credit: ESA / NASA / Johns Hopkins APL / Josh Diaz.

JUICE Captures Sharpest Ever Image of Earth’s Radiation Belt

Oct 2, 2024 by News Staff

In August 2024, ESA’s JUpiter ICy Moons Explorer (JUICE) made history with a daring Moon-Earth flyby and double gravity assist maneuver. As the spacecraft...

Darren Williams & Michael Zugger examined the concept of collision-less binary exchange for capturing massive satellites -- comparable to and larger than the Moon -- around terrestrial-mass objects either inside or outside the Solar System.

Young Earth May Have Captured Moon from Space, Research Suggests

Oct 2, 2024 by News Staff

The Moon may have been captured during a close encounter between a young Earth and a terrestrial binary (a system of the Moon and another rocky object),...

Protopapa et al. detected carbon dioxide and hydrogen peroxide spectral signatures on Charon using Webb telescope observations (white), which extend the wavelength coverage of previous New Horizons flyby measurements (pink). Image credit: S. Protopapa / SwRI / NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI / JHUAPL.

Webb Detects Carbon Dioxide and Hydrogen Peroxide on Charon’s Surface

Oct 1, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

Using data from the Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) onboard the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have detected carbon dioxide...

This false-color image shows the dwarf planet Ceres. Scientists use false color to examine differences in surface materials. The color blue on Ceres is generally associated with bright material, found in more than 130 locations, and seems to be consistent with salts. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA.

Ceres is Former Ocean World, Planetary Scientists Say

Sep 27, 2024 by News Staff

Ceres is a key object in understanding the evolution of small bodies and is the only dwarf planet to have been orbited by a spacecraft, NASA’s Dawn mission....

This schematic illustrates the progressive alteration of iron-rich rocks on Mars as the rocks interact with water containing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Image credit: Joshua Murray & Oliver Jagoutz, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adm8443.

Early Martian Atmosphere Could Be Locked Up in Planet’s Clay Surface

Sep 27, 2024 by News Staff

Geological observations of Mars indicate a dense early atmosphere ranging from 0.25 to 4 bar of carbon dioxide. But 3.5 billion years ago, the Martian...

This artist’s illustration shows the ejection of a cloud of debris after NASA’s DART spacecraft collided with the asteroid Dimorphos. Image credit: ESO / M. Kornmesser.

X-ray Pulses from Nuclear Explosions Can Deflect Dangerous Asteroids, Researchers Say

Sep 24, 2024 by News Staff

Around 66 million years ago, the Chicxulub asteroid impact triggered mass extinction, mega-tsunamis and a spell of global warming that lasted for around...

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

Planetary Scientists Create Global Map of Volcanic Hotspots on Io

Sep 20, 2024 by News Staff

Io is the most volcanically active body in the Solar System. Io’s volcanoes are powered by both the extreme tides from Jupiter and the gravitational...

Tomkins et al. suggest that a large chondrite asteroid had a near miss encounter with Earth 466 million years ago, which caused it to break up as it passed through Earth’s Roche limit.

Earth Had Ring System 466 Million Years Ago, New Research Suggests

Sep 18, 2024 by News Staff

Breakup of an asteroid passing within Earth’s Roche limit likely formed the debris ring during the middle Ordovician period, according to new research...

A comparison of the JunoCam image from February 2024 with Galileo spacecraft imagery of the same area in November 1997 (grayscale insert) reveals a new volcanic feature on the surface of Io. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / MSSS / Europlanet.

NASA’s Juno Orbiter Discovers New Volcano on Io

Sep 13, 2024 by News Staff

Using images from the JunoCam instrument aboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft, planetary scientists have spotted a fresh volcano with multiple lava flows and...

Examples of the ‘Kieffer zoo’ features proposed to be formed by seasonal carbon dioxide sublimation dynamics on Mars: (a) ‘thin’ spiders within the south polar layered deposits; (b) dark spots on top of a layer of translucent carbon dioxide slab ice covering a cluster of ‘fat’ spiders at Martian ‘Inca City;’ (c) ‘fried eggs’ showing rings of dark dust surrounded by bright halos; (d) patterned ground within the high south polar latitudes with dark oriented fans indicative of wind direction and some bright, white fans; (e) bright halos surrounding Swiss cheese depressions; (f) ‘lace terrain,’ a type of patterned ground suggested to be polygonally patterned ground later scoured and eroded by surface-flowing carbon dioxide gas from the Kieffer model. Image credit: HiRISE / NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory / University of Arizona.

Martian ‘Spiders’ Re-Created in Lab for First Time

Sep 12, 2024 by Natali Anderson

Martian ‘spiders’ are small, dark, spider-shaped features up to 1 km (0.6 miles) across. The leading theory is that they form when spring sunshine...