https://phys.org/space-news/planetary-sciences en-us Planetary science and exoplanets exploration news stories and features from Phys.org Atmospheric scientists get a little more excited with every rock core NASA's Perseverance Mars rover seals in its titanium sample tubes, which are being gathered for eventual delivery to Earth as part of the Mars Sample Return campaign. Twenty-four have been taken so far. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-scientists-intrigued-air-nasa-mars.html Planetary Sciences Thu, 20 Jun 2024 15:44:20 EDT news638117054 Rusty in appearance and magnificent in detail, a new image of the Mawrth Vallis region on Mars reveals a world rich in iron, magnesium and aluminum. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-exomars-gas-orbiter-image-exposes.html Planetary Sciences Thu, 20 Jun 2024 11:56:02 EDT news638103361 Four and a half billion years ago, our solar system was a cloud of gas and dust swirling around the sun, until gas began to condense and accrete along with dust to form asteroids and planets. What did this cosmic nursery, known as a protoplanetary disk, look like, and how was it structured? https://phys.org/news/2024-06-iron-meteorites-hint-infant-solar.html Planetary Sciences Thu, 20 Jun 2024 11:41:04 EDT news638102461 The official start of summer is around the corner. Parts of the West have already experienced triple-digit heat and wildfires. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-summer-solstice-corner-daylight.html Planetary Sciences Thu, 20 Jun 2024 07:15:36 EDT news638086531 Titan, Saturn's largest moon, is the only other planetary body in the solar system that currently hosts active rivers, lakes, and seas. These otherworldly river systems are thought to be filled with liquid methane and ethane that flows into wide lakes and seas, some as large as the Great Lakes on Earth. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-titan-strong-erode-coastlines-lakes.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 19 Jun 2024 14:00:01 EDT news638004482 Earth's protective atmosphere has sheltered life for billions of years, creating a haven where evolution produced complex lifeforms like us. The ozone layer plays a critical role in shielding the biosphere from deadly UV radiation. It blocks 99% of the sun's powerful UV output. Earth's magnetosphere also shelters us. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-earth-atmosphere-defense-nearby-supernovae.html Astronomy Planetary Sciences Wed, 19 Jun 2024 12:29:53 EDT news638018990 The severity of anxiety and depressive symptoms in the planetary science community is greater than in the general U.S. population, according to a study led by a University of Hawai'i at Mānoa scientist and published in Nature Astronomy. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-mental-health-planetary-science-community.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 19 Jun 2024 10:32:15 EDT news638011933 It's time for the start of summer—with a full moon to boot. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-summer-solstice.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 19 Jun 2024 10:27:24 EDT news638011640 NASA, on behalf of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), has selected Lockheed Martin Corp. of Littleton, Colorado, to build the spacecraft for NOAA's Geostationary Extended Observations (GeoXO) satellite program. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-nasa-lockheed-martin-gen-spacecraft.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 19 Jun 2024 08:53:52 EDT news638006028 After months of driving, Perseverance has finally arrived at "Bright Angel," discovering oddly textured rock unlike any the rover has seen before. The team now plans to drive up the slope to uncover the origin of this rock sequence and its relationship to the margin unit. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-perseverance-popcorn-planet-mars.html Space Exploration Planetary Sciences Tue, 18 Jun 2024 15:28:52 EDT news637943330 Solstices mark the changing of seasons, occur twice a year, and feature the year's shortest and longest daylight hours—depending on your hemisphere. These extremes in the length of day and night make solstice days more noticeable to many observers than the subtle equality of day and night experienced during equinoxes. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-tropical-solstice-shadows.html Planetary Sciences Tue, 18 Jun 2024 13:32:18 EDT news637936336 Scientists around the world are constantly on the hunt for planets outside our solar system that could potentially provide a habitable environment for life. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-earth-small-planets.html Planetary Sciences Tue, 18 Jun 2024 12:17:05 EDT news637931822 A discovery by researchers at the University of Houston has revealed a massive energy imbalance on Saturn, shedding new light on planetary science and evolution and challenging existing climate models for the solar system's gas giants. The findings appear in the publication Nature Communications. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-scientists-massive-energy-imbalance-saturn.html Planetary Sciences Tue, 18 Jun 2024 11:31:04 EDT news637929061 If liquid water exists today on Mars, it may be too deep underground to detect with traditional methods used on Earth. But listening to earthquakes that occur on Mars—or marsquakes—could offer a new tool in the search, according to a team led by Penn State scientists. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-marsquakes-reveal-liquid-underground-red.html Planetary Sciences Tue, 18 Jun 2024 09:59:04 EDT news637923542 A research team led by Prof. Wang Wenzhong from the School of Earth and Space Sciences of the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), in collaboration with international scholars, studied the fractionation behavior of nitrogen isotopes during the accretionary evolution of terrestrial planets. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-uncover-nitrogen-early-evolution-earth.html Planetary Sciences Mon, 17 Jun 2024 11:03:03 EDT news637840981 A multi-institutional team of planetary scientists has learned more about the early composition of the solar system by studying a meteorite named Northwest Africa 14250. In their study, published in the journal Science Advances, the group used a scanning tunneling microscope to learn more about the isotopic makeup of clasts inside the sample. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-meteorite-northwest-africa-reveals-composition.html Planetary Sciences Mon, 17 Jun 2024 10:30:01 EDT news637838534 Research staff at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya—BarcelonaTech (UPC) and the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (CNS-BSC) have analyzed historical observations since the 17th century and developed numerical models to explain the longevity and nature of Jupiter's Great Red Spot. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-age-jupiter-great-red.html Planetary Sciences Mon, 17 Jun 2024 10:00:04 EDT news637837201 NASA's Voyager 1, the most distant spacecraft from Earth, is sending science data again. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-nasa-voyager-distant-spacecraft-earth.html Space Exploration Planetary Sciences Sat, 15 Jun 2024 10:40:01 EDT news637639628 NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft is conducting normal science operations for the first time following a technical issue that arose in November 2023. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-voyager-science-instruments.html Space Exploration Planetary Sciences Fri, 14 Jun 2024 12:45:02 EDT news637587899 For more than a decade, Western University planetary geologist Gordon "Oz" Osinski has led expeditions to Kamestastin Lake in Labrador. The environment is a perfect training ground because the properties and rock formations—created by the violent impact (and extreme heat) of an asteroid 36 million years ago—uniquely mimic the surface on the moon. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-quebec-lake-meteorite-impact-yields.html Planetary Sciences Fri, 14 Jun 2024 11:50:01 EDT news637584160 In 2021, NASA's Perseverance rover landed in the Jezero Crater on Mars. For the next three years, this astrobiology mission collected soil and rock samples from the crater floor for eventual return to Earth. The analysis of these samples is expected to reveal much about Mars' past and how it transitioned from being a warmer, wetter place to the frigid and desiccated place we know today. Unfortunately, budget cuts have placed the future of the proposed NASA-ESA Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission in doubt. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-nasa-ways-mars-samples-home.html Planetary Sciences Fri, 14 Jun 2024 11:32:03 EDT news637583521 An international team of astronomers reports the discovery of a new Earth-sized exoplanet that orbits an ultracool dwarf star located just 54.6 light years away. The newfound alien world, designated SPECULOOS-3 b, is slightly smaller but much hotter than our planet. The finding was reported in a paper published May 15 in the journal Nature Astronomy. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-astronomers-earth-sized-exoplanet-orbiting.html Planetary Sciences Fri, 14 Jun 2024 09:23:47 EDT news637575824 The small footprint and dim light of white dwarfs, remnants of stars that have burned through their fuel, may make excellent backdrops for studying planets with enough water to harbor life. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-watery-planets-orbiting-dead-stars.html Astrobiology Planetary Sciences Thu, 13 Jun 2024 16:46:04 EDT news637515961 New Curtin University research could change how space missions are conducted and lead to improvements in industries as diverse as environmental management, agriculture, disaster management and infrastructure inspection. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-approach-space-missions-heights.html Space Exploration Planetary Sciences Thu, 13 Jun 2024 14:12:03 EDT news637506721 Originally thought of as little more than a route clear of rover-slowing boulders, Neretva Vallis has provided a bounty of geologic options for the science team. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-nasa-perseverance-fords-ancient-river.html Planetary Sciences Thu, 13 Jun 2024 13:45:38 EDT news637505134 Researchers discovered mini-Neptunes around four red dwarfs using observations from a global network of ground-based telescopes and the TESS space telescope. These four mini-Neptunes are close to their parent stars, and the three of them are likely to be in eccentric orbits. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-mysterious-mini-neptunes.html Planetary Sciences Thu, 13 Jun 2024 11:13:03 EDT news637495981 Earth observations are one of the most essential functions of our current fleet of satellites. Typically, each satellite specializes in one kind of remote sensing—monitoring ocean levels, for example, or watching clouds develop and move. That is primarily due to the constraints of their sensors—particularly the radar. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-atomic-sensor-track-earth-glaciers.html Planetary Sciences Thu, 13 Jun 2024 10:54:03 EDT news637494841 ESA's Hera asteroid mission and its two CubeSats interacted as if they were in space, within the foam pyramid-lined walls of the Agency's Maxwell test chamber in the Netherlands. The trio communicated together, sharing data and ranging information at the same time as their Hera mothership received commands from its mission controllers at the European Space Operations Center in Darmstadt, Germany. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-hera-cubesats-mission.html Space Exploration Planetary Sciences Thu, 13 Jun 2024 10:17:20 EDT news637492636 So far, scientists have found around 34,000 near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) that could serve as humanity's stepping stone to the stars. These balls of rock and ice hold valuable resources as we expand throughout the solar system, making them valuable real estate in any future space economy. But the 34,000 we know of only make up a small percentage of the total number of asteroids in our vicinity—some estimates theorize that up to 1 billion asteroids larger than a modern car exist near Earth. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-mission-million-earth-asteroids-year.html Space Exploration Planetary Sciences Wed, 12 Jun 2024 16:32:03 EDT news637428721 Proba-3 is ESA's—and the world's—first precision formation flying mission. A pair of satellites will fly together relative to the sun so that one casts a precisely-controlled shadow onto the other, to create a prolonged solar eclipse in orbit. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-video-eclipse-satellite-proba.html Space Exploration Planetary Sciences Wed, 12 Jun 2024 16:10:06 EDT news637427174