For the first time, a spacecraft is headed to Jupiter’s odd Trojan asteroids. What Lucy finds there could provide a fresh peek into the history of the solar system. “Lucy…
Category: Planetary Science
Earth is reflecting less light. It’s not clear if that’s a trend
The amount of sunlight that Earth reflects back into space — measured by the dim glow seen on the dark portions of a crescent moon’s face — has decreased measurably…
China’s lunar rock samples show lava flowed on the moon 2 billion years ago
Lava oozed across the moon’s surface just 2 billion years ago, bits of lunar rocks retrieved by China’s Chang’e-5 mission reveal. A chemical analysis of the volcanic rocks confirms that…
Space rocks may have bounced off baby Earth, but slammed into Venus
Squabbling sibling planets may have hurled space rocks when they were young. Simulations suggest that space rocks the size of baby planets struck both the newborn Earth and Venus, but…
NASA’s Perseverance rover snagged its first Martian rock samples
The Perseverance rover has captured its first two slices of Mars. NASA’s latest Mars rover drilled into a flat rock nicknamed Rochette on September 1 and filled a roughly finger-sized…
