Planetary Science
- Planetary Science
The cataclysmic origins of most of Earth’s meteorites have been found
Just a few smashups in the asteroid belt may account for 70 percent of Earth’s meteorites, limiting what’s known about our solar system’s history.
- Planetary Science
NASA’s Europa mission is a homecoming for one planetary astronomer
Over her long career, Bonnie Buratti has seen the search for life in the solar system go from a joke to a flagship mission.
- Planetary Science
Saturn’s first Trojan asteroid has finally been discovered
Saturn joins the sun’s other giant planets that have Trojans, space rocks that orbit along the same path.
- Planetary Science
Europa Clipper has launched to solve an alien mystery
Launched October 14, the spacecraft will repeatedly buzz Europa in search of water, energy and organic compounds.
- Planetary Science
Scientists find a long-sought electric field in Earth’s atmosphere
The Earth’s ambipolar electric field is weak but strong enough to control the shape and evolution of the upper atmosphere.
- Planetary Science
The Webb telescope’s peek into a stellar nursery finds baby planets too
Images by the James Webb telescope of six Jupiter-sized worlds, one of which may have a moon-forming disk, reveal clues into how planets and stars form.
- Space
Moonquakes are much more common than thought, Apollo data suggest
The discovery of 22,000 previously unseen moonquakes, plus a new idea of what causes them, could help us better prepare for trips there.
- Planetary Science
NASA’s Perseverance rover finds its first possible hint of ancient life on Mars
The NASA Mars rover examined a rock containing organic compounds and “leopard spots” that, on Earth, are associated with microbial life.
- Space
A planet needs to start with a lot of water to become like Earth
Rocky planets around fiery stars could hide their water for later use, but it takes 3 to 8 times the amount in our world’s oceans to end up Earthlike.
- Planetary Science
Jupiter’s Great Red Spot may be less than 200 years old
An analysis of images spanning hundreds of years suggests a dark spot spied in the late 1600s and early 1700s is distinct from the Red Spot seen today.
- Planetary Science
Sulfur was key to the first water on Earth
Hydrogen bonded with sulfur may have given our world its first water after the hydrogen broke away and joined with oxygen in the planet’s crust.
- Planetary Science
Venus might be as volcanically active as Earth
Data from NASA’s Magellan spacecraft suggest that volcanic activity is widespread on Venus.
