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.
How can we explore Saturn's moon, Enceladus, to include its surface and subsurface ocean, with the goal of potentially discovering life as we know it? This is what a recent study presented at the American Geophysical Union ...
Astrobiology
Feb 25, 2025
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160
More pocked with craters than any other object in our solar system, Jupiter's outermost and second-biggest Galilean moon, Callisto, appears geologically unremarkable. In the 1990s, however, NASA's Galileo spacecraft captured ...
Astrobiology
Feb 18, 2025
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466
An international team of engineers and space scientists has used a variety of assumptions, techniques, and math principles to calculate the energy requirements for using moon dust to create rocket fuel. In their paper published ...
A new paper released today documents the first soil, airfall dust, and rock fragment samples collected by NASA for return from Mars. The University of Nevada, Las Vegas astrobiologist leading the specimen selection team discusses ...
Astrobiology
Feb 6, 2025
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91
No matter how many missions to Mars she takes part in, the sheer joy of unearthing discoveries about the red planet never gets old for Mariek Schmidt.
Planetary Sciences
Feb 5, 2025
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57
Burrowing under soil opens up a whole new world, especially when that soil is on other planets. Getting under the top layer of regolith on a world such as Mars could give access to a world still extant with life, whereas, ...
Space Exploration
Feb 4, 2025
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33
Last year, a study led by planetary scientist Richard Cartwright at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, proposed that deposits of carbon dioxide ice and other carbon-bearing molecules on ...
Planetary Sciences
Feb 4, 2025
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63
Southwest Research Institute partnered with the Carnegie Institution for Science to perform laboratory experiments to better understand how Saturn's moon Titan can maintain its unique nitrogen-rich atmosphere. Titan is the ...
Planetary Sciences
Jan 27, 2025
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177
Emily Simpson has loved space since she was a 10-year-old kid celebrating her birthday at a planetarium. Now a recent Florida Tech graduate, she leaves with not only a dual degree in planetary science and astronomy and astrophysics ...
Planetary Sciences
Jan 13, 2025
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259
As part of its Artemis campaign, NASA is developing a series of increasingly complex lunar deliveries and missions to ultimately build a sustained human presence at the moon for decades to come. Through the agency's CLPS ...
Space Exploration
Jan 10, 2025
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