Planet Archives - Page 8 of 9

Electricity in Martian Dust Storms Could Be Major Driving Force of Planet’s Chlorine Cycle

By News Staff February 20, 2023

Frictional electrification is a common process in the Solar System, with Martian dust activities known to be a powerful source of electrical charge buildup. Furthermore, the thin atmosphere on the…

Hubble Detects Start of New Saturn Ring Spoke Season

By News Staff February 10, 2023

Saturn is known for its iconic, pristine rings. However, the main B ring can have splotches and streaks of darker or lighter material, known as spokes, that may be tied…

Scientists Find Various Organic Compounds in Martian Meteorite

By News Staff January 12, 2023

An international team of researchers has detected abundant polyaromatic compounds, organic magnesium compounds, aliphatic branched carboxylic acids, aldehydes, and olefins in the Tissint meteorite, which landed near the city of…

Trace Gas Detection Sheds New Light on Atmospheres of Jupiter and Its Volcanic Moon Io

By Natali Anderson December 28, 2022

Using data from NSF’s Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA), the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and NASA’s Juno spacecraft, two teams of astronomers have examined the distribution of…

Mars Express Spots Two Large Craters at Martian South Pole

By News Staff December 23, 2022

A new image from the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board ESA’s Mars Express orbiter shows an exciting landscape of layered deposits, frost, ice, and dark dunes in Ultimi…

NASA’s Perseverance Rover Records Sound of Martian Dust Devil

By News Staff December 13, 2022

Dust devils — convective vortices loaded with dust — are common at the surface of Mars, particularly at Jezero crater, the landing site of NASA’s Perseverance rover. They are indicators…

Planetary Scientists Find Evidence for Active Mantle Plume on Mars

By News Staff December 6, 2022

Elysium Planitia, a flat-smooth plain just north of the Martian equator, is underlain by an 4,000-km-diameter active mantle plume, according to new research by scientists from the Lunar and Planetary…

Chicxulub-Like Asteroid Caused Megatsunami on Early Mars

By News Staff December 1, 2022

The Chicxulub-like asteroid crash landed in shallow ocean waters in the Martian region of Chryse Planitia 3.4 billion years ago (Hesperian period) and left a crater about 110 km wide,…

Early Martian Ocean Was Over 300 Meters Deep, New Research Suggests

By News Staff November 18, 2022

An analysis of chromium isotopes in Martian meteorites suggests that approximately 4.5 billion years ago, there was enough water for the entire planet to be covered in a 300-m-deep global…

Martian Springtime Dust Storms Churn Up Surprisingly Earth-Like Cloud Patterns: Study

By News Staff November 16, 2022

Using images obtained by two orbiting spacecraft, NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and ESA’s Mars Express, planetary researchers analyzed textured dust storms that develop at the northern polar cap boundary on…