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Planetary Sciences news
NASA spacecraft discovers a huge new crater on the moon
Scientists have discovered a crater on the moon that's bigger than the Roman Colosseum and is the result of a powerful impact two years ago that initially went undetected.
Space Exploration
8 hours ago
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Snow, monsoons and oceans shift Earth's center of mass each year, satellite tracking shows
Seasonal changes redistribute enough water around Earth to shift the planet's center of mass back and forth by fractions of an inch relative to its geometric center. NASA scientists are on the case, tracking the oscillations ...
Planetary Sciences
20 hours ago
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Newfound 'baby' planet smashes record for youngest known world
Astronomers have confirmed a world less than a million years old as the youngest known planet, using data from archives. Called Elias 2-24 b, the baby planet is still whirling in its natal disk of dust and gas.
Planetary Sciences
20 hours ago
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A 16-minute train delay shows how a solar storm disrupted Victorian technology
A 178-year-old mystery surrounding one of the earliest recorded examples of space weather affecting technology has been solved by an international team led by Lancaster University.
Planetary Sciences
Sep 16, 2026
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A world 20 light-years away reveals surprisingly organized, Jupiter-like weather
Scientists from Trinity College Dublin have developed a way to unravel changing weather patterns on distant worlds. Using this approach, they discovered that the weather on a well-studied brown dwarf, SIMP 0136, previously ...
Space Exploration
Sep 16, 2026
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CubeSat instrument extends solar storm warnings 10x
The sun is the reason life exists on our small, blue planet. It provides solar radiation that warms the planet and ignites intricate biochemical processes like photosynthesis, producing oxygen for life to breathe. However, ...
Astronomy
Sep 15, 2026
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Laser altimeter BELA ready to explore Mercury's surface
Launched on Oct. 20, 2018, the joint ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission has traveled for almost eight years, using a carefully planned but eventful sequence of planetary flybys and solar-electric propulsion to gradually approach ...
Planetary Sciences
Sep 15, 2026
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Could the clues to ancient alien civilizations be hiding in moon dust?
Most of our experience with the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) has focused on capturing radio signals that alien species have sent out, whether intentionally or unintentionally. That creates a huge "synchronicity" ...
Astrobiology
Sep 15, 2026
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How the 2024 solar superstorm drained Earth's radiation belt
In May 2024, Earth experienced its most intense geomagnetic storm since the Halloween storms of 2003. This "superstorm" filled night skies in many parts of the world with colorful aurorae, and it disrupted some infrastructure, ...
Planetary Sciences
Sep 14, 2026
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No cities on the moon—there isn't enough water, scientists say
The discovery of water in dark craters at the moon's poles has sparked a "moon rush" to establish bases there, followed by villages, cities and heavy industry. How sustainable is this rush?
Space Exploration
Sep 14, 2026
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110
JWST ruled out finding tiny moons around an exoplanet—that's great news
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has opened many wonders of the cosmos to scientists since it began science operations a few years ago. But one thing it hasn't done is find an "exomoon." These still-theoretical moons ...
Planetary Sciences
Sep 13, 2026
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Masked tectonic structures suggest Mercury contracted 40% more than its visible scars alone indicate
The surface of Mercury is filled with craters, ridges and steep cliffs. Over billions of years, as the planet's interior cooled, the planet also shrank. Just as the skin of a drying fruit wrinkles when what is inside it shrinks, ...
Planetary Sciences
Sep 13, 2026
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NASA's next great observatory could spot oceans on distant worlds
We've found more than 5,500 exoplanets so far. Dozens of them are in the habitable zones of their parent stars, where, at least in theory, they could host an ocean. But we've never definitively found a liquid ocean on another ...
Space Exploration
Sep 13, 2026
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Japan's Hayabusa2 achieves first-ever laser ranging experiment with an asteroid
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA) Hayabusa2 spacecraft reached another milestone this summer, a first for space agencies. On Sunday, July 5, the probe conducted the first successful laser-ranging experiment ...
Space Exploration
Sep 12, 2026
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Scientists discover a strange new form of ice that could help explain the interiors of Neptune and Uranus
Scientists have discovered that there is ice deep inside planets like Neptune and Uranus and want to find out what form it takes and how it behaves. They cannot dig for it and transport it all the way back to Earth, so they ...
What's carving active gullies on Mars? It's not water
Scientists were shocked when they received the first images of Martian gullies. They were even more shocked as those gullies appeared to change over time. Their similarities to gullies seen on Earth were uncanny, but all ...
Planetary Sciences
Sep 11, 2026
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Release of open AI model trained on 17 years of lunar data maps ice, craters and volcanoes
NASA is bringing artificial intelligence to the study of the moon, helping researchers transform how they analyze its surface. In an ongoing collaboration with IBM Research and several academic institutions, NASA has launched ...
Planetary Sciences
Sep 11, 2026
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A new surface atlas of Phobos will help MMX mission collect its samples
Thanks to JAXA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and its sample-return capabilities, we're on the cusp of receiving our first sample from the Martian system—not from Mars itself, but from its largest moon, Phobos. ...
Space Exploration
Sep 11, 2026
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Ancient Swedish Goths had surprisingly accurate calendars
On a mostly flat plain an hour north of Stockholm lies a collection of large burial mounds dating from an ancient culture at least 2,500 years old. These people were not Vikings; they were northern Germanic Goths, pagan polytheists ...
Astronomy
Sep 10, 2026
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Sun's largest sunspots may have potential to trigger superflares
The sun is capable of great things. In massive eruptions, it repeatedly hurls particles and radiation into space. This solar bombardment can be dangerous for technical infrastructure on Earth: For example, satellites and ...
Planetary Sciences
Sep 10, 2026
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More news
Mercury is shrinking more than we thought
Scientists want to 3D print houses on Mars with the help of yeast
'Fingerprints' inside the sun could reveal if it once swallowed a planet
BepiColombo measures Mercury's particle bombardment up close
JWST discovers that Chariklo's invisible rings are changing
A new mission could rendezvous with Halley's Comet in 2061
New model measures economic risks solar storms pose to US power grid
Spacecraft bound for Mercury begins 'tricky' arrival
How Mercury formed its graphite crust and core
Why doesn't Venus have a moon? A new study may have the answer
A pair of spacecraft draw closer to Mercury after nearly decade-long voyage
Perseverance rover watches Earth vanish behind Martian moon
Other news
Deep-sea crustaceans caught hitching rides on giant sea spiders
Robotic lab sets up and runs optics experiments on demand
Genome assembly of rice stink bug offers new data-informed tool in fight against costly pest
NASA rocket takes first multi-point look inside radio-disrupting clouds
Saturn encounter may have set distant centaur on path to becoming a comet
Martian astronomy: Percy sees a 'Phobos eclipse' from Mars
Precision optics to make plant health visible from space
Tyrannosaurus rex teeth reveal a body temperature close to the human average
