Ceres is Former Ocean World, Planetary Scientists Say
Ceres is a key object in understanding the evolution of small bodies and is the only dwarf planet to have been orbited by a spacecraft, NASA’s Dawn mission. Dawn data…
Martian ‘Spiders’ Re-Created in Lab for First Time
Martian ‘spiders’ are small, dark, spider-shaped features up to 1 km (0.6 miles) across. The leading theory is that they form when spring sunshine falls on layers of carbon dioxide…
Ancient Mars was Cool and Relatively Wet, New Study Suggests
In a new study, planetary scientists found strong similarities between soils found in Gale Crater on Mars and those of Canada’s Newfoundland, a cold subarctic climate. X-ray amorphous material comprises…
Water Frost Deposits Spotted on Tropical Martian Volcanoes
Using high-resolution color images from ESA’s Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) and Mars Express missions, planetary researchers have found evidence for morning frost deposits on the calderas of the Tharsis volcanoes…
Pluto’s Subsurface Ocean is 8% Denser than Seawater on Earth, Study Suggests
Planetary researchers from Washington University in St. Louis and the Lunar and Planetary Institute have used mathematical models and unprecedented high-resolution images from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft to take a…
Planetary Scientists Create Map of Ceres’ Cold Traps
The dwarf planet Ceres hosts permanently shadowed areas in its polar regions, and these regions are an interesting analog to Mercury and the Moon. Ceres’ permanently shadowed regions were mapped…
Arrokoth and Other Kuiper Belt Objects Contain Pristine Ices, Study Suggests
A duo of planetary scientists from Brown University and the SETI Institute has found that the Kuiper Belt object (486958) Arrokoth, which was the target of the January 1, 2019…
Planetary Scientists Discover Giant Shield Volcano on Mars
Provisionally designated Noctis Mons, the newly-discovered volcano is located just south of Mars’ equator, in Eastern Noctis Labyrinthus, west of Valles Marineris, the planet’s vast canyon system. Noctis Mons. Image…
Europa Produces Less Oxygen than Previously Thought
Using data from the Jovian Auroral Distributions Experiment (JADE) instrument onboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft, planetary scientists have calculated the rate of oxygen being produced at Jupiter’s icy moon Europa to…
Mars Express Spots Sand Dunes and Ice Layers at Martian North Pole
New images from the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft show the terrain surrounding the permanent north polar ice cap of Mars. This image from ESA’s…