Planetary Science

  1. Astronomy

    In a first, astronomers spotted a space rock turning into a comet

    Scientists have caught a space rock in the act of shifting from a Kuiper Belt object to a comet. That process won’t be complete until 2063.

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  2. Astronomy

    Hubble watched a lunar eclipse to see Earth from an alien’s perspective

    Hubble observed sunlight filtering through Earth’s atmosphere during a lunar eclipse to see what a habitable exoplanet’s atmosphere might look like.

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  3. Planetary Science

    Jupiter’s moons could keep each other warm by raising tidal waves

    Along with gravity from the enormous planet, tidal forces between Jupiter’s moons could generate a surprising amount of heat.

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  4. Space

    ‘Exotic’ lightning crackles across Jupiter’s cloud tops

    Newly spotted lightning, which could form thanks to ammonia antifreeze, is weaker but more frequent than any flashes seen on Jupiter before.

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  5. Planetary Science

    The Perseverance rover caps off a month of Mars launches

    With the launch of NASA’s Perseverance rover, the rush to the Red Planet is under way.

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  6. Space

    To rehearse Perseverance’s mission, scientists pretended to be a Mars rover

    Seven Mars scientists pretended to be the Mars Perseverance rover on a training exercise in the Nevada desert.

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  7. Planetary Science

    NASA’s Perseverance rover will seek signs of past life on Mars

    NASA’s Perseverance rover will collect rocks and search for past life on Mars using lasers and zoomable cameras among other instruments.

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  8. Space

    Two new books explore Mars — and what it means to be human

    ‘Once Upon a Time I Lived on Mars’ and ‘The Sirens of Mars’ are surprisingly apt reads during the pandemic.

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  9. Planetary Science

    How upcoming missions to Mars will help predict its wild dust storms

    Predicting the weather on Mars is essential for landing and keeping rovers — or astronauts — safe on the surface. The next Mars missions will give forecasts a boost.

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  10. Planetary Science

    Some exoplanets may be covered in weird water that’s between liquid and gas

    “Supercritical” water, a corrosive substance used to break down toxic waste on Earth, coats some small worlds around other stars, simulations suggest.

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  11. Space

    A newfound exoplanet may be the exposed core of a gas giant

    A planet about 734 light-years away could be a former gas giant that lost its atmosphere or a failed giant that never finished growing.

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  12. Planetary Science

    An asteroid’s moon got a name so NASA can bump it off its course

    A tiny moon orbiting an asteroid finally got a name because NASA plans to crash a spacecraft into it.

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