Planet Archives - Page 7 of 9

Local Tectonic Activity Could Cause Landslides on Icy Satellites of Jupiter and Saturn

By News Staff April 17, 2023

Intense tectonism is evident on many outer solar system satellites — such as Ganymede, Europa, and Enceladus — with some surface regions showing ridge-and-trough structures which have characteristics suggestive of…

ESA’s JUICE Spacecraft Launches to Study Jupiter’s Icy Moons

By News Staff April 17, 2023

ESA’s latest interplanetary mission, the JUpiter ICy Moons Explorer (JUICE), lifted off on an Ariane 5 rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, at 14:14 CEST on April 14, 2023, to begin its eight-year…

Saturn’s Rings are Heating Gas Giant’s Upper Atmosphere, Astronomers Say

By News Staff March 30, 2023

The most feasible explanation is that icy ring particles raining down onto Saturn’s atmosphere cause this heating, according to a team of astronomers who analyzed several datasets obtained by the…

Venus is Home to At Least 85,000 Volcanoes, Planetary Researchers Say

By News Staff March 30, 2023

There are many thousands of volcanoes on the surface of Venus. These volcanoes provide clues into the interior properties of the planet, properties that are otherwise largely inaccessible to scientists…

Scientists Explain Why Jupiter’s and Saturn’s Icy Moons Have Extreme Radar Properties

By News Staff March 23, 2023

The radar properties of icy satellites of Jupiter and Saturn commonly differ by more than an order of magnitude from those of rocky planets because of the lower absorptivity of…

Relict Glacier Spotted near Martian Equator

By News Staff March 20, 2023

A so-called light-toned deposit (LTD) in Eastern Noctis Labyrinthus, about 160 km (99.4 miles) north-west of Oudemans crater near Mars’ equator, presents distinctive morphologic characteristics of a glacier, according to…

Study Offers New Insights into Extraterrestrial Origins of Earth’s Water

By News Staff March 16, 2023

In new research, planetary scientists from the University of Maryland and elsewhere analyzed melted meteorites that had been floating around in space since the Solar System’s formation around 4.5 billion…

Venus Has Ongoing Active Volcanism, New Study Confirms

By News Staff March 15, 2023

Planetary scientists have examined volcanic areas on Venus that were imaged two or three times by NASA’s Magellan spacecraft and identified a 2.2-km2 volcanic vent that changed shape in the…

Curiosity Rover Images Sun Rays and Feather-Shaped Clouds on Mars

By News Staff March 6, 2023

‘Sun rays’ are also known as crepuscular rays, from the Latin word for twilight. It was the first time sun rays have been so clearly viewed on Mars. This feather-shaped…

Venus’ Outer Shell is Shaping Planet’s Surface, Study Suggests

By News Staff February 24, 2023

Earth has a hot core that heats the surrounding mantle, which carries that heat up to the planet’s lithosphere. The heat is then lost to space, cooling the uppermost region…