Planetary Science
NASA will be heading back to Venus for the first time in decades
Two newly selected missions, VERITAS and DAVINCI+, will explore the history of the planet's water and habitability.
Planetary Science
More Stories in Planetary Science
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AstronomySaturn has a fuzzy core, spread over more than half the planet’s diameter
Analysis of a wave in one of Saturn’s rings has revealed that the planet’s core is diffuse and bloated with lots of hydrogen and helium.
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Planetary ScienceNASA’s Ingenuity helicopter’s mission with Perseverance has been extended
NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter has passed all its tests and is ready to support the Perseverance rover in looking for ancient Martian life.
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Planetary ScienceNASA’s Perseverance rover split CO2 to make breathable air on Mars
An oxygen-making experiment on Perseverance shows that astronauts will one day be able to make air to breathe and, better yet, rocket fuel.
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Planetary ScienceNASA’s Ingenuity helicopter made history by flying on Mars
An autonomous helicopter just lifted itself into the air on Mars, marking the first time a vehicle has flown on a planet other than Earth.
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Planetary ScienceHow the laws of physics constrain the size of alien raindrops
Physics limits the size of raindrops, no matter what they’re made of or what planet they fall on.
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Planetary ScienceEarth sweeps up 5,200 tons of extraterrestrial dust each year
Thousands of micrometeorites collected from Antarctica come from both comets and asteroids, a new study suggests.
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Planetary ScienceA meteor may have exploded over Antarctica 430,000 years ago
Tiny spherules recovered from a mountaintop suggest a space rock broke apart midflight and sprayed debris across thousands of kilometers.
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Space50 years ago, experiments hinted at the possibility of life on Mars
In 1971, lab experiments suggested organic molecules could be made on Mars. Fifty years later, robots are searching for such signs of life on the planet itself.
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Space‘Oumuamua may be a chip knocked off an icy, Pluto-like exoplanet
If the first interstellar visitor were a shard of nitrogen ice, it would explain some of its unusual behavior when it passed through our solar system.