Planetary sciences is an interdisciplinary field that investigates the formation, evolution, and current state of planets, moons, and smaller bodies within and beyond our Solar System using the methods of physics, chemistry, geology, and atmospheric science. It encompasses studies of planetary interiors, surfaces, atmospheres, magnetospheres, and ring systems, as well as orbital dynamics and interactions with stellar radiation and plasma environments. Planetary sciences integrates remote sensing, in situ spacecraft measurements, laboratory experiments, and numerical modeling to constrain processes such as accretion, differentiation, tectonism, volcanism, impact cratering, climate evolution, and potential habitability on diverse planetary bodies.
Mars' innermost moon, Phobos, has long puzzled planetary scientists, who have continually debated whether it's a captured asteroid or formed from debris after a giant impactor struck the Martian surface. The key to solving ...
Planetary Sciences
Jun 22, 2026
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A biocontainment facility designed to protect Earth from potentially hazardous biotic contaminants from space should be part of a planned NASA base on the moon, a policy paper maintains.
Space Exploration
Jun 19, 2026
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Sending a spacecraft to the underexplored planet Uranus is at the top of many planetary scientists' wish lists. But which spacecraft-mounted instruments would be most useful for answering questions about the mysterious ice ...
Planetary Sciences
Jun 18, 2026
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Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) scientists studying the inner main-belt asteroid Donaldjohanson have found that its rotation wobbles. Rather than rolling through space in a steady pattern, Donaldjohanson turns on two ...
Planetary Sciences
Jun 18, 2026
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Birdwatching is one of the most common and popular ways people experience nature. But it's not often that even the most enthusiastic birdwatcher returns to the same place more than 800 times to witness the changes over four ...
Plants & Animals
Jun 17, 2026
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To truly understand what an asteroid is made of, we need to send a probe to it. Remote sensing from ground-based telescopes, or even orbiting observatories, can only do so much. A new white paper submitted to the U.K. Space ...
Planetary Sciences
Jun 12, 2026
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Moon missions come in all shapes and sizes, from car-sized rovers packed with scientific equipment to towering rocket payloads—and now, a small, shape-shifting machine that is about the size of the average palm.
Since NASA's Artemis II crew members safely splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on April 10 after their record-setting mission around the moon, science teams have been busy collecting more data and combing through observations ...
Space Exploration
Jun 8, 2026
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It may seem like we are on the verge of discovering alien life. In 2025, a press release stated that we have the "strongest hints yet" of extraterrestrial life on the exoplanet K2-18b. And when talking about a collected sample ...
Astrobiology
Jun 5, 2026
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China's Tianwen-2 sample-return mission is well on its way to its target, an asteroid called Kamo'oalewa. The spacecraft left Earth in May 2025 and should return in late 2027 with samples of a space rock that scientists had ...
