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…
Planetary Scientists Create Global Map of Volcanic Hotspots on Io
Io is the most volcanically active body in the Solar System. Io’s volcanoes are powered by both the extreme tides from Jupiter and the gravitational interactions between it and Jupiter’s…
NASA’s Juno Orbiter Discovers New Volcano on Io
Using images from the JunoCam instrument aboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft, planetary scientists have spotted a fresh volcano with multiple lava flows and volcanic deposits covering an area about 180 x…
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…
MAVEN and Hubble Observations Shed New Light on Mars’ Water History
Mars’ water history is fundamental to understanding an evolution of Earth-like planets. Water escapes to space as atoms, and hydrogen (H) atoms escape faster than deuterium (D) — which is…
NASA’s Endurance Mission Measures Earth’s Ambipolar Electric Field for First Time
First hypothesized more than 60 years ago, the ambipolar electric field is a key driver of the polar wind, a steady outflow of charged particles into space that occurs above…
Planetary Reseachers Create 3D Radiation Map of Jovian System
Using data gathered by the Advanced Stellar Compass (ASC) and the Stellar Reference Unit (SRU) onboard NASA’s Juno orbiter, scientists have produced the first complete 3D radiation map of the…
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…
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…
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.…