Planetary Science

  1. Planetary Science

    Martian moon probably pretty porous

    Phobos may be a mass of rocky rubble, not a captured asteroid.

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  2. Earth

    Gravity lows mark burial sites of ancient tectonic plates

    Dips in Earth's gravitational field are tied to 'slab graveyards'

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  3. Planetary Science

    Warmth in the dark age

    Lower reflectivity kept Earth from freezing under a fainter young sun.

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  4. Planetary Science

    Signs of giant comet impacts found in cores

    An uptick in ammonium may be evidence of a 50-billion-ton strike at the end of the ice age.

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  5. Earth

    Irrigation draining California groundwater at ‘unsustainable’ pace

    The GRACE satellites have tracked water movement from the Central Valley since 2003.

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  6. Planetary Science

    Pluto’s cloud components verified

    Newly analyzed observations suggest that particles are tiny spherules of frozen nitrogen and carbon monoxide.

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  7. Earth

    Deep hole spotted on moon

    The feature may be a ‘skylight’ in an underground lava tube.

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  8. Planetary Science

    Mercury, As Never Seen Before: MESSENGER visits innermost planet

    The first spacecraft to visit Mercury in 33 years imaged 25 percent of the crater-pocked surface that had never before been seen close-up.

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  9. Ecosystems

    Windy with a chance of weevils

    Scientists have traced the reappearance of cotton pests in west-central Texas to a tropical storm.

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  10. Planetary Science

    Award named for late Science News writer

    Jonathan Eberhart's name lives on in a new planetary-sciences award.

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  11. Space

    Water on the moon: How much?

    Ron Cowen reports from the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society’s Division for Planetary Sciences.

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  12. Health & Medicine

    Measuring citations: Calculations can vary widely

    Depending on how citation tallies will be used, it may pay to cherry pick the appropriate counting house.

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