Probing Venus’ mountains — Science News, February 12, 1972 Venus’ perpetually cloud-shrouded surface remains penetrable only by radio waves. A planetary radar group now reports results of an extended series…
Category: Planetary Science
Earth has a second known ‘Trojan asteroid’ that shares its orbit
A recently found space rock is schlepping along with Earth around the sun. This “Trojan asteroid” is only the second one discovered that belongs to our planet. And it’s probably…
Machine learning points to prime places in Antarctica to find meteorites
The hunt for meteorites may have just gotten some new leads. A powerful new machine learning algorithm has identified over 600 hot spots in Antarctica where scientists are likely to…
Organic molecules in an ancient Mars meteorite formed via geology, not alien life
When researchers in 1996 reported they had found organic molecules nestled in an ancient Martian meteorite discovered in Antarctica, it caused quite a buzz. Some insisted the compounds were big-if-true…
Oxygen-rich exoplanets may be geologically active
Humble oxygen is more than just a building block of life. The element could also help scientists sneak a peek into the innards of planets orbiting faraway stars, a new…
Enceladus’ plumes might not come from an underground ocean
Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus sprays water vapor into space. Scientists have thought that the plumes come from a deep subsurface ocean — but that might not be the case, new…
Ingenuity is still flying on Mars. Here’s what the helicopter is up to
The Ingenuity Mars helicopter was never supposed to last this long. NASA engineers built and tested the first self-powered aircraft to fly on another planet to answer a simple question:…
A space rock called Kamoʻoalewa may be a piece of the moon
The moon’s violent history is written across its face. Over billions of years, space rocks have punched craters into its surface, flinging out debris. Now, for the first time, astronomers…
Pluto’s dark side reveals clues to its atmosphere and frost cycles
Pluto’s dark side has come into dim view, thanks to the light of the dwarf planet’s moon. When NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft flew past Pluto in 2015, almost all the…
What the Perseverance rover’s quiet landing reveals about meteor strikes on Mars
The lander was listening. On February 18, NASA’s InSight lander on Mars turned its attention to the landing site for another mission, Perseverance, hoping to detect its arrival on the…
