Sand on Earth is continuously being created by the slow erosion of rocks. But on Mars, violent asteroid impacts may play an important role in making new sand. As much…
Category: Planetary Science
How balloons could one day detect quakes on Venus
The balloon was floating over the Pacific Ocean when the first sound waves hit. For 11 seconds, a tiny device dangling beneath the large, transparent balloon recorded sudden, jerky fluctuations…
How Mars rovers have evolved in 25 years of exploring the Red Planet
Few things are harder than hurling a robot into space — and sticking the landing. On the morning of July 4, 1997, mission controllers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in…
Astronauts might be able to use asteroid soil to grow crops
Astronauts might one day dine on salad grown in asteroid soil. Romaine lettuce, chili pepper and pink radish plants all grew in mixtures of peat moss and faux asteroid soil,…
Amateur astronomers’ images of a rare double aurora may unlock its secrets
What happens when two different kinds of auroras get together? One spills the other’s secrets. Amateur astronomers have captured a strange combination of red and green auroras on camera, and…
A new look at the ‘mineral kingdom’ may transform how we search for life
If every mineral tells a story, then geologists now have their equivalent of The Arabian Nights. For the first time, scientists have cataloged every different way that every known mineral…
50 years ago, a new theory of Earth’s core began solidifying
How the Earth got its core – Science News, July 1, 1972 In the beginning, scientists believe there was an interstellar gas cloud of all the elements comprising the Earth.…
New Gaia data paint the most detailed picture yet of the Milky Way
1.6 billion stars. 11.4 million galaxies. 158,000 asteroids. One spacecraft. The European Space Agency’s Gaia space observatory, which launched in 2013, has long surpassed its goal of charting more than…
Samples of the asteroid Ryugu are scientists’ purest pieces of the solar system
Samples of the asteroid Ryugu are the most pristine pieces of the solar system that scientists have in their possession. A new analysis of Ryugu material confirms the porous rubble-pile…
Ice at the moon’s poles might have come from ancient volcanoes
Four billion years ago, lava spilled onto the moon’s crust, etching the man in the moon we see today. But the volcanoes may have also left a much colder legacy:…
