planetary-science

A lightweight new X-ray telescope could finally give scientists something they’ve never had before: a complete chemical map of the Moon. Researchers used detailed mission simulations to show that a compact telescope orbiting the Moon could identify key elements across the entire lunar surface, helping reveal how the Moon formed and evolved.

“Extraterrestrial Cause for the Cretaceous-Tertiary Extinction,” by physicist Luis Alvarez, geologist Walter Alvarez, Frank Asaro, and Helen Michel, was published in Science June 6, 1980. In it, the authors propose that an asteroid crashing to Earth was responsible for the death of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. (The timeline was later amended to 66 Continue reading "June 6, 1980: The astero…

The Solar System is one of the comforting constants of human existence. No matter what...

Astronomers have identified a strange planet nearly five times more massive than Earth, with an unusual composition that sets it apart from many worlds discovered to date.

New simulations reveal that the moons of Uranus may retain traces of giant planets.

Scientists have discovered that huge clay deposits near the landing site of the upcoming ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover are much larger than previously thought. The finding strengthens the idea that large amounts of water once existed on Mars and may even suggest that a vast ocean covered part of the planet around 4 billion years […] The post Ancient Martian ocean? Vast clay deposits may hold cl…

Ever since the first protoplanetary disk was discovered in 1984 around the star Beta Pictoris, these objects have presented astronomers with laboratories to study the births and evolution of worlds around distant stars. A team at France's National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and the University of Bordeaux, made a breakthrough in understanding these planetary birthplaces when they direct…

NASA announced new contracts for the rovers and landers that will lay the groundwork for the agency’s proposed $30-billion Moon Base — some of which they plan to launch as soon as this fall — during a May 26 press conference. The announcement offered the most detailed look yet into the Moon Base plan NASA Continue reading "How NASA plans to build a Moon Base" The post How NASA plans to build a Mo…

Over more than a decade at Mars, the orbiter revealed how the solar wind strips away the planet’s atmosphere — and why the world lost its water.

Artemis III will test the spacecraft and procedures that will make a human return to the moon possible, paving the way for a permanent lunar presence.

Scientists have uncovered a surprising force that may help explain how binary star systems form so quickly. New supercomputer simulations show that magnetic fields surrounding newborn stars can act like a cosmic brake, stripping away angular momentum and allowing two still-forming protostars to spiral closer together instead of drifting apart.

Night shining noctilucent clouds could brighten the sky before dawn and after sunset from tonight!

Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column.  June 4: Jupiter passes south of Pollux Now that the Red Planet is rising roughly an hour before the Sun, let’s check in on Mars in the predawn sky. The nearby world now has time to climb well above the horizon, leading Continue reading "The Sky Today on Friday, June 5: Check in on Mars" The post The Sky Today on Friday, …

With this cross-journal Collection, the editors invite submissions that advance our understanding of Mercury’s magnetosphere and exosphere, particularly through findings from space missions, as well as relevant theoretical and modelling studies. Submissions are encouraged by 20 February 2027.

This image shows nighttime temperatures at the Moon’s north pole as measured by the Diviner instrument on board NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft. The post Nighttime Temperatures at the Moon’s North Pole appeared first on NASA Science .

New research shows how unmagnetized worlds like Mars can still deflect some of the Sun's solar wind. Unlike magnetospheres that form around planet's like Earth, this effect takes place in Mars' ionosphere. It's called the Zwan-Wolf effect, and it's not clear how deep into the atmosphere it operates.

A rare lunar occultation of Venus, planetary alignments, and the start of astronomical summer make June a prime month for stargazers.

NASA just declared its MAVEN Mars orbiter dead after a dozen productive years circling the Red Planet. Here's the fate that awaits the probe.

It’s a familiar annual question, that we’re already hearing as we enter into June. “What are those two bright objects in the west?” They’re none other than the two brightest planets in the sky, Jupiter and Venus. Keep an eye on the dusk sky over the next week, and you’ll see the two worlds getting ever closer to each other in the west. Though this happens every year or so, an evening conjunction …