planetary-science

A strange honeycomb landscape on Mars may preserve the scars of ancient cycles of rain, drought, and cracking mud. The surface of Mars is home to some of the most breathtaking and awe-inspiring landscapes in the solar system. This is primarily due to the Red Planet lacking several resurfacing processes that Earth possesses, including plate [...]

From tiny glass beads and a map of the Moon to Mercury, a new study uses an indirect method to determine the silicon dioxide content of Mercury’s surface. Mercury’s surface appears to contain substantially less silicon dioxide than researchers previously estimated. A new analysis puts the compound at about 37 percent by mass, up to [...]

[NASA] Scarps such as this have either active mass wasting (landslides) or the potential for current mass wasting. When this occurs, it’s likely the result of the sublimation of ice […] The post Mass Wasting On Mars appeared first on Astrobiology .

Venus is sinking lower into the sunset this September, but the brilliant Evening Star won't be gone for long.

NASA funded an early-stage concept aiming to show new techniques for mapping minerals on the moon, asteroids or Martian moons.

The planet Venus is arguably the most mischievous planetary body in the solar system. This is because like Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, Venus is shrouded in a thick atmosphere that can’t be viewed with optical telescopes and require radar images to see the surface. Unlike Titan, whose atmosphere looks quite dull, Venus’s swirling and awe-inspiring […] The post Could Life Exist on Venus? Peptides…

Mercury may once have been covered by a thin crust of graphite, the same form of carbon used in pencils. New laboratory studies have revealed how this unusual crust formed and why the planet’s enormous core contains much less carbon than scientists once thought. The research was conducted by scientists at the University of Liège […] The post Mercury’s Ancient Crust May Have Been Made of Graphite …

The dark features were photographed in 2015; this is the first published attempt the authors know of to read them as liquid flowing in the modern epoch.

The tracking shows Mars deforming in a way a uniform planet should not, and the least strained explanation is a hemisphere of mantle that something is still keeping warm.

The planet Venus is arguably the most mischievous planetary body in the solar system. This is because like Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, Venus is shrouded in a thick atmosphere that can’t be viewed with optical telescopes and require radar images to see the surface. Unlike Titan, whose atmosphere looks quite dull, Venus’s swirling and awe-inspiring clouds give observers the impression that its su…

Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column.  September 4: Get in a workout Titan, Saturn’s brightest moon, orbits its parent world with a period of about 16 days. You’ll find this moon passing near Saturn today and tomorrow, when it will be northeast and northwest of the ringed world, Continue reading "The Sky Today on Saturday, September 5: Titan near Saturn" The …

As the BepiColombo mission prepares to enter the final phase of its journey to Mercury, a series of studies conducted by researchers at the University of Liège and KU Leuven sheds new light on the early stages of the evolution of the planet closest to the sun. Using experimental petrology, the researchers are reconstructing in […]

Roman is on its way to make discoveries, including more Solar System moons than you might expect....

The BepiColombo mission, by the European Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, is only the third to study our smallest planetary neighbor

Once on the surface, a robotic arm will drill cylindrical tubes into the surface to collect samples. The probe is also equipped with a device first developed by NASA that uses a stream of nitrogen gas to collect fine particles from the very top layer of dust. Whether or not Phobos originated from an impact […]

The surface of Mars is home to some of the most breathtaking and awe-inspiring landscapes in the solar system. This is primarily because the Red Planet lacks several resurfacing processes that Earth possesses, including plate tectonics, volcanism and flowing water. While Mars does have dust storms, these have done little to reshape the planet’s surface, […]

Venus is sinking into the sunset as it catches up with Earth — and a small telescope now reveals something the naked eye never can: another planet going through phases.

iSpace-Europe and the European Space Agency (ESA) have officially agreed the MAGPIE mission, Europe’s first lunar polar ice exploration rover. MAGPIE stands for the “Mission for Advanced Geophysics and Polar […] The post iSpace leading ESA’s first lunar polar ice exploration rover mission appeared first on Electronics Weekly .

Mars has always been called the Red Planet, but a new global view from ESA reveals a far more complex world hiding beneath its familiar surface.

Astronomers have found signs that comets may be transporting water from the cold outer regions of a young planetary system toward the warmer area where new planets can form. The discovery could help scientists understand how water reached Earth billions of years ago. Researchers at Lund University in Sweden studied a planetary system called PDS […] The post Comets May Be Carrying Water to New Pla…