Planetary Science
- Planetary Science
Readers contemplate water on Mars and more
Readers had questions about the significance of finding water on mars, air pollution from wildfires and spray-on sensors.
- Planetary Science
The first rovers to explore an asteroid just sent photos home
Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft has deployed a pair of rovers to the surface of asteroid Ryugu.
- Planetary Science
The ghosts of nearly two dozen icy volcanoes haunt dwarf planet Ceres
The slumped remains of 21 ice volcanoes suggest that the dwarf planet Ceres has been volcanically active for billions of years.
- Planetary Science
Saturn has two hexagons, not one, swirling around its north pole
NASA’s Cassini spacecraft spied a vortex growing high over Saturn’s north pole, whose hexagonal shape mirrors a famous underlying cyclone.
- Planetary Science
Jupiter’s magnetic field is surprisingly weird
New results from NASA’s Juno spacecraft reveal different magnetic behavior in the planet’s northern and southern hemispheres.
- Planetary Science
The massive Mars dust storm is waning. Now, will Opportunity wake?
With a global dust storm on Mars finally passing, NASA hopes that its Opportunity rover will soon phone home.
- Planetary Science
New Horizons has sent back the first images of Ultima Thule, its next target
NASA probe gets its first look at distant Kuiper Belt object
- Planetary Science
OSIRIS-REx snaps first images of asteroid Bennu
OSIRIS-REx got its first glimpse of near-Earth asteroid Bennu. The probe will collect a sample from the asteroid and return it to Earth.
- Planetary Science
Here’s where the Hayabusa2 spacecraft will land on the asteroid Ryugu
Japan’s Hayabusa2 probe and its landers will touch down on the asteroid Ryugu in the next few months to pick up dust samples and return them to Earth.
- Astronomy
New Horizons may have seen a glow at the solar system’s edge
New Horizons may have seen a hydrogen wall just past the edge of the solar system, where the solar wind meets the stuff of interstellar space.
- Planetary Science
What does Mars’ lake mean for the search for life on the Red Planet?
A lake spotted hiding under Martian ice could support life, but finding out if anything lives there could be challenging.
- Planetary Science
Mars (probably) has a lake of liquid water
A 15-year-old Mars orbiter has spotted signs of a salty lake beneath the Red Planet’s south polar ice sheets.
