SOHO Observatory Discovers Its 5,000th Comet
On March 25, 2024, Hanjie Tan, an astronomy Ph.D. student in Prague, Czech Republic, spotted a comet in an image from the ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft, which…
Scientists Create High-Resolution Geological Map of Oxia Planum
Using data from ESA’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter and NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, planetary scientists have created the 1:30000 scale geological map of Oxia Planum, the landing site for ESA’s…
NASA Scientists Unveil Design for Europa Clipper’s ‘Golden Record’
NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft will carry a triangular metal plate with a special message when it launches in October 2024 and heads toward Jupiter’s moon Europa. This side of a…
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…
Asteroid Moonlet Dimorphos May Have Been Reshaped Following Impact from NASA’s DART Mission
On September 26, 2022, NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission successfully impacted Dimorphos, the natural satellite of the binary near-Earth asteroid Didymos. New numerical simulations indicate that the DART…
Ancient Mars May Have Had Hydrothermal Systems
The history of water on Mars is a puzzle that is of interest to planetary scientists as well as the general public. The Red Planet currently has water in the…
Kuiper Belt May Be Much Larger than Previously Estimated
Kuiper Belt objects (KBOs) are thought to be the dominant source of interplanetary dust particles in the outer Solar System due to both collisions between KBOs and their continual bombardment…
Webb Finds Evidence of Hydrothermal Processes in Interiors of Eris and Makemake
The icy dwarf planets Eris and Makemake have surfaces bearing methane ice of unknown origin. According to an analysis of data from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, Eris and…
SOFIA Detects Molecular Water on Nominally Dry Asteroids
Using the FORCAST instrument on NASA’s retired Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), astronomers have obtained mid-infrared spectra of four S-type (silicate-rich) asteroids: Iris, Parthenope, Melpomene, and Massalia. They’ve detected…
Early Mars was Tectonically and Volcanically Active, Study Suggests
The relatively well-preserved ancient crust of Mars provides a natural window into early planetary evolution not available on Earth. Mars has generally been considered a one-plate basaltic planet, though recent…