Using data from NASA’s Juno spacecraft, planetary scientists have produced the most precise measurements of Jupiter’s size in half a century and found the Solar System’s largest planet is slimmer and flatter than long believed.

The post Jupiter is Little Smaller Than We Thought appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

NASA’s Curiosity rover has detected more than 20 carbon-containing compounds -- including seven never before seen on Mars -- in a sample collected from 3.5-billion-year-old clay-bearing sandstones in Gale crater.

The post Curiosity Reveals Richest Trove of Organic Molecules Yet on Mars appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

Using data from the ChemCam instrument on NASA’s Curiosity rover, planetary scientists found minerals with high amounts of iron, manganese, and zinc in preserved ripple beds in Gale Crater rocks, indicating the high likelihood that a shallow lake existed at this location.

The post Curiosity Finds Chemical Traces of Ancient Shallow Lake in Gale Crater appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

A continent-like shelf beneath the Martian surface hints that a vast ocean once covered up to a third of Mars, reshaping the long-running debate over its watery past.

The post Newly-Identified Geological Feature Points to Vast, Long-Dried Up Ocean in Northern Plains of Mars appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

New research from Rice University suggests sulfur keeps Mercury’s interior molten at lower temperatures, offering new clues to how the planet’s strange crust and mantle evolved.

The post Mercury’s Sulfur-Rich Magma May Rewrite How Solar System’s Innermost Planet Formed appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

New simulations suggest Jupiter’s powerful magnetism carved a gap in its early disk, helping capture and preserve major moons like Io and Ganymede, while Saturn’s weaker field left its system sparsely populated.

The post Jupiter’s Strong Magnetic Field May Explain Why It Has So Many Large Moons appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

A new nanoscale analysis of the Bennu sample OREX-800066-3 returned by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission shows that organic compounds and minerals cluster into distinct regions, suggesting water once altered the asteroid in uneven, localized ways.

The post Asteroid Bennu’s Minerals and Organic Matter Occur in Distinct Chemical Domains: Study appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

New computational simulations suggest ice-giant planets like Uranus and Neptune harbor a quasi-one-dimensional superionic state of carbon hydride that could reshape how scientists understand planetary interiors.

The post New Form of Matter May Lurk Deep Inside Uranus and Neptune appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

A new analysis of data from NASA’s Parker Solar Probe shows that protons and heavy ions react differently to solar magnetic reconnection events, suggesting a more intricate mechanism behind space weather.

The post Closer Look at the Sun Reveals More Chaotic Magnetic Heart appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

Archival data from ESA’s Cassini mission reveal that Saturn’s protective magnetic bubble is lopsided, shaped not just by the solar wind but by its rapid spin and the material streaming from its moons.

The post Saturn’s Magnetic Shield is Skewed, Offering Clues to Alien Worlds appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

New findings from Neretva Vallis, an ancient river channel that once transported water into Jezero crater on Mars, reveal unusually high nickel levels in 3-billion-year-old sediments, echoing mineral patterns on Earth sometimes linked to microbial processes.

The post Nickel-Rich Rocks Discovered by Perseverance Hint at Complex Chemistry on Early Mars appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

A new analysis of isotopic signatures across planets and meteorite parent bodies suggests our home world formed entirely from inner solar system material, challenging long-standing theories of distant origins.

The post Earth’s Building Blocks Came from Close to Home, Planetary Scientists Say appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

On its way to Jupiter, ESA’s Juice spacecraft briefly turned its gaze toward a rare interstellar visitor, 3I/ATLAS, capturing valuable data from an object born beyond our Solar System.

The post How Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS Met Unlikely Observer appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

Samples returned by JAXA’s Hayabusa-2 mission from the C-type asteroid (162173) Ryugu contain all five canonical nucleobases -- purines (adenine and guanine) and pyrimidines (cytosine, thymine and uracil) -- pointing to a cosmic origin for some of life’s fundamental chemistry.

The post DNA’s Building Blocks May Have Arrived from Space, Asteroid Ryugu Samples Suggest appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

New measurements show that the DART impact in 2022 not only shortened the orbit of the moonlet Dimorphos around its parent asteroid, Didymos, but also subtly shifted the entire binary system’s path around the Sun.

The post NASA’s Planetary Defense Test Changed Binary Asteroid’s Orbit around the Sun appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

New research shows that Deinococcus radiodurans has outstanding ability to survive the extreme transient pressures associated with impact-induced ejection from Mars.

The post Extremophile Bacteria May Hitch Rides on Asteroid Fragments appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

Planetary scientsts from the United States, Europe and China have used the Ultraviolet Spectrograph (UVS) onboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft to map detailed patch structures in Ganymede’s aurorae that parallel those seen on Earth.

The post Ganymede’s Auroral Patches Reveal Shared Physics with Earth’s Aurorae appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

As human space exploration pushes farther from Earth, the need for sustainable ways to obtain local resources is becoming increasingly urgent, as routine resupply missions grow impractical.

The post Fungi on International Space Station Show Surprising Metal Extraction Skills appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

Planetary scientists have identified thousands of small mare ridges (SMRs) across the Moon’s maria, pointing to active tectonic forces that may shape the next era of space exploration.

The post Moon is More Geologically Active than Previously Thought appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

In a paper to be published in the Planetary Science Journal, scientists from SETI Institute, Southwest Research Institute, Caltech and the Observatoire de Paris argue that Saturn’s largest moon is not a primordial world, but the result of a dramatic merger between two ancient moons.

The post Saturn’s Ring System, Hyperion and Titan May Have Originated in Collision of Two Proto-Moons appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.