Planetary Science
- Astronomy
The moon’s poles have no fixed address
Ancient deposits of lunar water ice mark where the moon’s poles used to be.
- Astronomy
Two chunks of the same comet buzzing Earth this week
Two comets, one a possible fragment of the other, will slip past Earth on March 21 and 22.
- Planetary Science
Comets carried noble gases to Earth
Asteroids might have delivered water to Earth, but comets could be responsible for noble gases and amino acids, a new study suggests.
- Planetary Science
Get your Pluto trivia down cold
Eight months after visiting Pluto, the New Horizons spacecraft has delivered a wealth of details about the dwarf planet and its family of moons.
- Planetary Science
Wandering Jupiter could have swept inner solar system clean
If Jupiter formed close to the sun and then wandered out, that might explain why there are no planets interior to Mercury’s orbit.
- Planetary Science
ExoMars mission to search for signs of life on the Red Planet
The next mission to Mars will tally gases in the planet’s atmosphere and test technologies for a 2018 rover.
- Planetary Science
Mountains on Pluto are a winter wonderland of methane snow
On Pluto, methane snow blankets mountain tops.
- Planetary Science
Mercury’s dark secret revealed
Graphite from Mercury’s primordial crust might be responsible for making the innermost planet darker than the moon.
- Planetary Science
Charon’s surface cracked when ancient subsurface sea froze
A subsurface ocean on Charon, Pluto’s largest moon, might have once frozen and cracked the moon’s surface, creating some of the ridges and valleys seen today.
- Chemistry
After 75 years, plutonium is still NASA’s fuel of choice
On the 75th anniversary of the discovery of plutonium, the radioactive element is still not a major source of fuel for nuclear power plants in the United States.
- Planetary Science
120 seconds in Pluto’s shadow
A 747 outfitted with a telescope worked with New Horizons to reveal details about Pluto’s atmosphere.
- Planetary Science
Support grows for a return to ice giants Uranus and Neptune
Thirty years ago, Voyager 2 cruised past Uranus and then on to Neptune. Now planetary scientists think it’s time to go back.
