Planetary Science

More Stories in Planetary Science

  1. An illustration of the BepiColombo probe with Mercury in the background.
    Planetary Science

    A rain of electrons causes Mercury’s X-ray auroras

    The first direct measurement of electrons raining down on Mercury suggests this particle precipitation causes most auroras in the solar system.

    By Elise Cutts
  2. A photo of a sample of the asteroid Ryugu, small black rocks, in a small circular dish.
    Astronomy

    Ryugu asteroid samples are sprinkled with stardust older than the solar system

    Slivers of the asteroid appear to be from the fringes of the solar system and could reveal bits of the history of the sun and its planets.

    By Lisa Grossman
  3. A photo of NASA's curiosity rover on the surface of Mars.
    Astronomy

    ‘Under Alien Skies’ imagines what the sky looks like on other planets

    Astronomer Philip Plait’s new book takes readers on a thrilling ride to Mars, Pluto and even a black hole.

    By Ashley Yeager
  4. An artist's creation shows a red Jupiter-like planet with a red star shining in the distance.
    Astronomy

    Jupiter-sized planets are very rare around the least massive stars

    A six-year search of 200 nearby low-mass red dwarf stars found no Jupiter-like planets, boosting the standard theory for how such planets form.

    By Ken Croswell
  5. Three images of a cyclone at the north pole of Uranus are seen in different wavelengths. The image on the left shows the cyclone in a white color, the middle cyclone a green color and the cyclone on the right is an orange color.
    Space

    A cyclone has been spotted swirling over Uranus’ north pole for the first time

    Voyager 2 hinted at a cyclone at Uranus’ south pole. Now Earth-based observations give the first direct evidence of a storm at the ice giant’s north pole.

    By Allison Gasparini
  6. A false-color image of a watery plume coming off Saturn's moon Enceladus.
    Planetary Science

    JWST captured Enceladus’ plume spraying water nearly 10,000 kilometers into space

    NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope reveals the rate at which Saturn’s moon Enceladus spews water and where that water ends up.

    By Lisa Grossman
  7. Mars' northern hemisphere, shown in false color that highlights lowlands near the north pole
    Planetary Science

    A quake on Mars showed its crust is thicker than Earth’s

    Seismic data from NASA’s Insight lander reveal the crust is roughly 50 kilometers thick, with the northern crust being thinner than the south’s.

    By Lisa Grossman
  8. An illustration of blue-gray clouds with bright blue and orange dots of light scattered throughout the image.
    Planetary Science

    Jupiter’s lightning bolts contort the same way as Earth’s

    Jovian lightning extends in jagged steps as it does on Earth, data from NASA’s Juno spacecraft suggest. The finding might aid the search for life.

    By Nikk Ogasa
  9. An image of Saturn and its rings.
    Planetary Science

    Saturn’s rings may be no more than 400 million years old

    An analysis of data from NASA’s defunct Cassini probe suggests Saturn's rings materialized more than 100 million years after trilobites appeared on Earth.

    By Nikk Ogasa