AMS Detector Reveals Surprising Surplus of Cosmic Rays Made of Deuterons
Deuterons — atomic nuclei made up of a proton and a neutron — are thought to form in the same way as helium-3 nuclei, in collisions between primary helium-4 nuclei…
Study: Asteroid Psyche Originated beyond Solar System’s Snow Line and Later Migrated to Main Belt
Planetary scientists using spectral data from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have confirmed the detection of hydroxyl molecules on the surface of the metallic asteroid Psyche. The presence of…
ESA’s Trace Gas Orbiter Spots Chloride-Bearing Deposits on Mars
Chloride deposits are markers for early Mars’ aqueous past, with important implications for the understanding of the Martian climate and habitability. Using high-resolution color-infrared images captured by the Colour and…
Mid-Crust of Mars May Contain ‘Oceans of Liquid Water’
New data about the Martian crust gathered by NASA’s InSight lander allowed geophysicists at the University of California San Diego and the University of California Berkeley to estimate that the…
‘Nanoparticle Warming’ Have Potential to Warm Mars, Planetary Scientists Say
One-third of Mars’ surface has shallow-buried water, but it is currently too cold for use by life. Proposals to warm Mars using greenhouse gases require a large mass of ingredients…
Mars Once Hosted Lake Larger than Any on Earth: Lake Eridania
This new image from the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) onboard ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft shows Caralis Chaos, broken-down and dried-up remnants of a vast ancient Martian lake named Lake…
Flakes of Natural Graphene Found in Lunar Soil Samples
In lunar regolith samples collected by China’s Chang’e-5 probe, planetary scientists have identified few-layer graphene formed together with complex minerals. The finding provides new insights into the origin of the…
Curiosity Finds Pure Sulfur on Mars
Yellow crystals of elemental sulfur were revealed after NASA’s Curiosity rover happened to drive over a rock and crack it open on May 30, 2024, according to the Curiosity team.…
Study: Biological Amino Acids Could Survive in Near-Surface Ices of Europa and Enceladus
Europa and Enceladus are key targets to search for evidence of alien life in our Solar System. However, the surface and shallow subsurface of these airless icy moons are constantly…
Cassini Reveals Surface Properties of Titan’s Hydrocarbon Seas
Saturn’s moon Titan was explored by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft from 2004 to 2017. While Cassini revealed a lot about this Earth-like world, its radar observations could only provide limited information…