Planetary Science News

How lightning is started in thunderstorms is poorly known. With a newly-developed 3D mapping and polarization system, physicists at Los Alamos National...

Atmospheric gravity waves play a crucial role in driving latitudinal air currents on the Red Planet, particularly at high altitudes, according to a new...

NASA’s Lucy spacecraft will fly by the small asteroid Donaldjohanson on April 20, 2025. By blinking between images captured by NASA’s Lucy spacecraft...

A team of researchers at the Bayerisches Geoinstitut has conducted high-pressure-temperature laboratory experiments to determine the crystal structure...

Called ferrihydrite, this iron mineral formed during a cold, wet period on early Mars under oxidative conditions, followed by a transition to the current...

Using data gathered by China’s Zhurong rover, planetary researchers have identified hidden layers of rock under the Martian surface that strongly suggest...

New images, taken over 16 min on January 17, 2025 by the Mastcam instrument on NASA’s Curiosity rover, show noctilucent, or twilight clouds, in the atmosphere...

A new analysis of magmatic iron meteorites challenges traditional theories about why Earth and Mars are depleted in moderately volatile elements. The Bendego...

In a new study, planetary researchers used global and high-resolution orbital imaging to discover a fresh, 21.5-m (71-foot) impact crater that appeared...

Asteroid Bennu is thought to be made of rubble fragments from a 4.5-billion-year-old parent body, containing materials that originated beyond Saturn, which...

New research from Smithsonian Institution and the University of Maryland shows that lunar fault structures may be recently and potentially currently active...

The newly-discovered volcanic hotspot is larger than Earth’s Lake Superior, and belches out eruptions six times the total energy of all the world’s...

A team of planetary researchers led by Caltech has determined the chemical mechanisms by which the ancient Mars was able to sustain enough warmth in its...

Ceres is the largest object in the main asteroid belt, and the only potential ocean world in the inner Solar System. A global scan for organic-rich sites...

Heating of complex organic matter in the presence of water may be an important source of Titan’s abundant atmospheric nitrogen and methane gases, according...

In July 2024, a home security camera in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada, captured rare video and sound of a meteorite striking Earth. According...

In a study published in the journal Nature Geoscience, planetary researchers used high-resolution images and compositional data captured by orbiters to...

Astronomers have long thought that the upper clouds of Jupiter, which create the planet’s iconic pale brown belts, are made of frozen ammonia. But a...

Planetary scientists at the University of Arizona say they have discovered an entirely new type of cosmic collision. Pluto and Charon are the largest binary...