Bizarre Underwater Snow Gives Clues About the Icy Shell of Jupiter’s Moon Europa
Below the thick icy crust of Jupiter’s moon Europa is a massive, global ocean where the snow floats upwards onto inverted ice peaks and submerged…
Planets
Astronomers May Have Discovered the Youngest Planet Ever Detected in Our Galaxy
ALMA Makes First-Ever Detection of Gas in a Circumplanetary Disk Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to study planet formation have made the…
EnVision Mission: Readying Spacecraft To Surf Venus’ Hot, Thick Atmosphere
EnVision, a project of the European Space Agency (ESA), is a mission to Venus that will perform optical, spectral and radar mapping of Earth’s sister…
4.5-Billion-Year-Old Martian Meteorite Reveals Secrets of Earth’s Origins
What do Mars and Iceland have in common? These days, not so much. However, more than 4.5 billion years ago, it’s possible the Red Planet…
Ancient Rocks Hold Clues to How Earth Avoided a Mars-Like Fate
New paleomagnetic research suggests Earth’s solid inner core formed 550 million years ago and restored our planet’s magnetic field. Swirling liquid iron in the Earth’s…
The “Grandest Canyon” in the Solar System: Mars Express Captures Stunning Images of Massive Martian Canyon
ESA’s Mars Express’s latest image release takes us over two ruptures in the martian crust that form part of the mighty Valles Marineris canyon system….
China’s Nuclear-Powered Mission to Neptune
China is Considering a Nuclear-Powered Mission to Neptune Some bold and cutting-edge space missions are proposed for the coming decade, as made clear by the…
Webb Space Telescope Showcases Its Incredible Power: Detects Water on Distant Planet
Webb’s Gigantic Mirror and Precision Instrumentation Join Forces To Capture the Most Detailed Spectrum of an Exoplanet Atmosphere Ever In a remarkable dream come true…
Undead Planets: The Bizarre Conditions of the First Exoplanet Detection
30 years ago, the first-ever exoplanets were discovered around a rapidly rotating star, called a pulsar. Now, astronomers have revealed that these planets may be…
Become a Jovian Vortex Hunter: Help NASA by Spotting Vortices on the Planet Jupiter
Jovian Vortex Hunter, a new NASA citizen science project, seeks your help spotting vortices – spiral wind patterns – and other phenomena in photos of…
NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Releasing Spectacular 5.6-Gigapixel Map of the Red Planet
The rainbow-colored map, to be released in batches over six months, covers the vast majority of the planet Mars, revealing dozens of minerals found on…
Complete Chaos: Scientists Unravel the Early History of the Solar System
The solar system’s chaotic early stages An international team of researchers led by the ETH Zurich and the National Centre of Competence in Research PlanetS…
Long-Term Liquid Water – Required for Life – Could Exist on Planets That Are Very Different From Earth
Liquid water is an important prerequisite for life to develop on a planet. As researchers report in a new study, liquid water could also exist…
BepiColombo Spacecraft Makes Second Gravity Assist of Planet Mercury – Captures Spectacular Close-Ups
The ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission has made its second gravity assist of planet Mercury, capturing new close-up images as it steers closer towards Mercury orbit in…
Martian Dust Devils: NASA’s Perseverance Studies the Wild Winds of Jezero Crater
The Mars rover’s weather sensors witnessed daily whirlwinds and more while studying the Red Planet. During its first couple of hundred days in Jezero Crater,…
4-Billion-Year-Old Crystals Offer Clues to When Plate Tectonics Began, Setting Stage for Life on Earth
Zircons (and the Secrets They Hold) Are Forever Scientists have long known that plate tectonics, the movement of distinct, rigid plates that make up the…
Why Did Mars Dry Out? Mystery Deepens As New Study Points to Unusual Answers
Study led by University of Chicago scientist deepens the mystery about the climate of early Mars. Mars once ran red with rivers. The telltale tracks…
Scientists Identify a Possible Source for Red Cap on Pluto’s Largest Moon Charon
Research combined spacecraft data with new lab experiments and models of Pluto’s largest moon. Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) scientists combined data from NASA’s New Horizons…
