Venus May Have Once Had Earth-Like Plate Tectonics
Venus is the least understood of the terrestrial planets. Despite broad similarities to the Earth in mass and size, Venus has no evidence of plate tectonics recorded on its young…
InSight Finds Evidence for Molten Silicate Layer above Martian Metallic Core
Mars’ liquid iron alloy core is surrounded by a layer of fully molten silicate (magma) about 150 km thick, according to a pair of papers published in the journal Nature.…
Ancient Mars was Planet of Rivers, Planetary Scientists Say
Ancient river deposits exist across Mars and can be identified in satellite data by erosional landforms called fluvial ridges. Fluvial ridges take the shape of ancient river deposits, and are…
Moon is Nearly 40 Million Years Older than Previously Thought
By analyzing tiny lunar zircon crystals gathered by Apollo 17 astronauts in 1972, planetary scientists recalculated the age of the Moon. Although previous assessments estimated the Moon as 4.425 billion…
InSight’s Largest Marsquake Was Likely Caused by Geological Processes, Study Says
During its time on Mars, NASA’s InSight (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) lander recorded over 1,300 seismic events, known as marsquakes. Of these, a number were…
Planetary Researchers Probe Origin of Complex Organics on Ceres
How aliphatic organic compounds originated on the dwarf planet Ceres has been the subject of intensive research since their discovery by NASA’s Dawn mission in 2017. Some studies have concluded…
Sample Material from Asteroid Bennu Contains Carbon and Water, NASA Scientists Say
The sample was collected by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification and Security, Regolith Explorer) spacecraft on October 20, 2020 and arrived on Earth on September 24, 2023. A…
Severe Space Weather Events Disrupt Nocturnal Bird Migrations, Researchers Find
Earth’s magnetic field is occasionally but regularly impacted by bursts of energy from the Sun (space weather), such as coronal mass ejections. Birds and other animals depend on the geomagnetic…
Extreme Solar Storm Hit Our Planet 14,300 Years Ago, Subfossil Tree-Rings Show
In new research, scientists from the University of Leeds and elsewhere measured radiocarbon levels in ancient trees preserved within the eroded banks of the Drouzet River in the Southern French…
Kuiper Belt Object Arrokoth’s Large Mounds Have Common Origin, New Study Suggests
The 5-km-long mounds that dominate the appearance of the larger lobe of Kuiper Belt object (486958) Arrokoth are similar enough to suggest a common origin, according to new research. New…