The “Snow Line” on Venus Varies by Elevation
The Magellan spacecraft sent to study Venus in the early 1990s was the first spacecraft to image the entire planet’s surface using radar. One of the many mysteries that emerged […]
The Magellan spacecraft sent to study Venus in the early 1990s was the first spacecraft to image the entire planet’s surface using radar. One of the many mysteries that emerged […]
Unraveling the origin of Earth’s volatile elements from meteorites, the building blocks of the solar system, may be complicated by planetary-scale processes such as differentiation, crystallization, and degassing. Previous models […]
Our view of Venus is dominated by a thick layer of clouds extending from 48 to 70 kilometers (30 to 43 miles) above the venusian surface. Before the Japanese satellite […]
In 2005, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft observed a water-rich plume erupting from the south polar terrain of Enceladus, suggesting that this moon of Saturn possessed a subsurface ocean beneath its icy […]
In December 2020, the Chinese National Space Administration (CNSA) returned nearly two kilograms of material from the Mons Rümker region (part of the Oceanus Procellarum) in the northern latitudes of […]
Young volcanic flow deposits on the Moon are associated with a region enriched in potassium, rare earth elements, and phosphorous (KREEP) known as the Procellarum-KREEP-Terrane, a region known to have […]
The Global Astrometric Interferometer for Astrophysics (Gaia) mission launched by ESA in 2013 is tasked with creating the largest three-dimensional map of the Milky Way galaxy to date by surveying […]
Mars experienced widespread volcanism and tectonic activity 3 to 4 billion years ago, but it has been viewed as largely tectonically quiescent since then. From 2018 to 2022, NASA’s InSight […]
JAXA’s Hayabusa2 mission returned ~5.4 grams of material from the C-type asteroid Ryugu. Studies have shown that this material resembles the CI (Ivuna-type) carbonaceous chondrites, which are primitive meteorites that […]
JWST was launched into space on December 25, 2021, and started taking pictures and collecting data a few months later. Since the telescope has been fully operational, JWST has been […]
NASA’s Perseverance rover landed in Jezero Crater on Mars on February 18, 2021, with the goals of studying Mars’ geology and past climate and searching for evidence of past microbial […]
Arsia Mons is the southernmost of the three large volcanoes on the Tharsis Plateau on Mars, rising to about 11 miles above the average martian surface. Winds impinging on such […]
In December 2020, the Hayabusa2 mission of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) returned samples from the near-Earth, C-type asteroid (162173) Ryugu. C-type asteroids have spectral properties similar to carbonaceous chondrite […]
Launched in 2018, NASA’s Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) lander has been active for the last four years, documenting marsquakes and asteroid impacts on Mars […]
The theory of plate tectonics is seminal in the geosciences, providing a testable framework to understand the existence and distribution of mountain belts, rifts, and basins on Earth. However, no […]
The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcanic eruption, which occurred on January 15, 2022, was the largest volcanic eruption of the 21st century. This eruption ejected a water plume that reached the […]
Scientists have discovered evidence of a megatsunami generated by an asteroid impact on Mars early in its history. This discovery dates back to the Viking 1 Lander (V1L), the first […]
Mars may have once been a blue and water-covered planet. According to a new study published by Kaveh Pahlevan and colleagues at Arizona State University, Mars’ earliest atmosphere was denser […]
The Perseverance rover touched down in the Jezero Crater on Mars on February 18, 2021. The rover had three main science objectives: to collect rock core samples that would eventually […]
A fireball streaked across the skies of southern Ontario early on November 19 as asteroid 2022 WJ1 burned up upon atmospheric entry. This is not unusual—meteors frequently strike Earth—but this […]