Solar system terrestrial planets as a research area focuses on the comparative study of Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars to understand the formation, differentiation, and evolution of rocky planets. It integrates planetary geology, geophysics, geochemistry, atmospheric science, and orbital dynamics to investigate crust–mantle–core structures, volcanic and tectonic processes, surface–atmosphere interactions, and volatile and climate histories. The field relies heavily on spacecraft missions, remote sensing, in situ measurements, laboratory analyses of analog materials, and numerical modeling to constrain accretion processes, interior dynamics, habitability conditions, and the broader context of terrestrial exoplanets.
Venus is one of the solar system's most unusual planets. It may sometimes be called "Earth's twin" because of its similar size and density, but it rotates on its axis in the opposite direction of most planets, has surface ...
Two Mercury-bound spacecraft left their mother ship behind on Thursday and headed down the home stretch of their nearly decade-long voyage to the solar system's smallest and closest-to-the-sun planet.
Planetary Sciences
Sep 3, 2026
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1067
New Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) modeling, conducted in collaboration with scientists at the University of Arizona, shows fundamental differences in how the moon may have formed from the giant impact that created the ...
Planetary Sciences
Sep 1, 2026
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109
Over the past three decades, computer models of planetary system formation have gone from fairly crude representations to sophisticated simulations using thousands of different starting points.
Planetary Sciences
Aug 21, 2026
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1120
Japanese scientists are readying a mission to Mars' moons to retrieve samples that may unlock the origins of the solar system and life on Earth, although a rival Chinese mission aims to make it back first.
Planetary Sciences
Aug 16, 2026
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138
Hundreds of Venus-like planets could soon help determine why some worlds become sweltering greenhouse hellscapes while others remain capable of supporting life. But before answering that question, scientists first need to ...
Astronomy
Aug 10, 2026
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31
Boston College scientists have determined that a newly discovered meteorite from Mars is 1.27 billion years old and derived from a previously unsampled, pristine source on the Red Planet. The study is published in the journal ...
Planetary Sciences
Aug 9, 2026
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120
Venus may be overwhelmingly inhospitable today, but many planetary scientists believe that it wasn't always this way. Billions of years ago, some observational evidence suggested that our planetary neighbor may have looked ...
A Southwest Research Institute-led study has proposed a connection between a specific collision in the main asteroid belt and an inner-solar-system-wide bombardment episode that may have had measurable biological and geological ...
Planetary Sciences
Jul 15, 2026
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39
A new Southwest Research Institute-led study proposes a solution to a longstanding puzzle in planetary science: What caused the concentration, assembly, and preservation of millimeter-sized, spherical mineral grains within ...
Planetary Sciences
Jul 8, 2026
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