Planetary Science

Planetary Science

Martian History: Weathering a new notion

Researchers suggest that intermittent impacts by huge asteroids and comets some 3.5 billion years ago profoundly influenced the landscape of Mars.

Planetary Science

X rays reveal Eros’ primitive nature

Aided by a blast of X rays from the sun, a spacecraft orbiting the near-Earth asteroid 433 Eros has gathered preliminary evidence that the rock is a primitive relic, apparently unchanged since the birth of the solar system.

Planetary Science

Seeing Saturn

After 5 years of interplanetary travel, the Saturn-bound Cassini spacecraft has taken its first picture of the ringed planet.

Planetary Science

Martian Radiation: Giving off a faint X-ray glow

Astronomers have for the first time taken an X-ray image of the Red Planet.

Planetary Science

Leapin’ Lava! Volcanic eruption on Io breaks the record

Pointing a ground-based telescope at Jupiter's moon Io, astronomers have recorded the most powerful volcano ever observed in the solar system.

Planetary Science

Europa’s freckles

Reddish spots and shallow pits that pepper the surface of Jupiter's moon Europa may mark regions where warmer and less dense ice percolates to the surface.

Planetary Science

Another moon for Uranus

Astronomers have confirmed the existence of the 21st moon known to be orbiting Uranus.

Planetary Science

Echoes of Icequakes: Simple probe could measure Europa’s ocean and icy shell

A football-size space probe could provide a low-cost way to determine whether there's a liquid ocean on the Jovian moon Europa.

Planetary Science

Rocks on the ice

Pristine fragments of a meteorite that fell January 18 in the frozen Yukon and that remained frozen until they were delivered to a NASA laboratory may reveal much about the earliest days of the solar system.

Planetary Science

A Comet’s Long Tail Tickles Ulysses

Stretching more than half a billion kilometers, the ion tail that Comet Hyakutake flaunted when it passed near the sun in 1996 is the longest ever recorded and suggests that otherwise invisible comets could be detected by searching for their tails.

Planetary Science

Reviewers see red over recent Mars programs

NASA's two most recent missions to Mars failed because they were underfunded, managed by inexperienced people, and insufficiently tested, according to a report released March 28.

Planetary Science

Unveiling Mars’ watery secret

A new gravity map of Mars has revealed a network of buried channels that billions of years ago may have been on the surface and helped carry water to fill an ancient ocean.