NASA's Juno spacecraft came within 1,500 km (930 miles) of the surface of Jupiter's moon Io in two recent flybys. That's close enough to reveal new details on the surface of this moon, the most volcanic object in the solar ...
Planetary Sciences
Apr 22, 2024
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38
Saturn's moon Mimas could have grown a huge underground ocean as its orbital eccentricity decreased to its present value and caused its icy shell to melt and thin.
Planetary Sciences
Apr 15, 2024
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90
Earth was long thought to be the only planet in our solar system with an ocean, but it is beginning to look as though there are underground oceans inside even the most surprising icy bodies.
Astrobiology
Apr 4, 2024
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50
Europa, one of Jupiter's many moons, may be capable of supporting life because its icy surface likely obscures a deep, salty ocean. Europa's ocean is also in direct contact with its mantle rocks, and interactions between ...
Planetary Sciences
Jan 11, 2024
2
275
Astronomers know of about 60 rocky exoplanets orbiting in the habitable zones of their stars. When they try to determine how habitable these planets might be, detecting water in their atmospheres plays a huge role. But what ...
Planetary Sciences
Dec 7, 2023
0
55
Jupiter's Io stands apart from the solar system's other moons, with its numerous volcanoes and its surface dominated by lava flows. Io's surface volcanism was confirmed in 1979 when the Voyager spacecraft imaged it, but its ...
Planetary Sciences
Oct 26, 2023
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51
We recently examined how and why Saturn's icy moon, Enceladus, could answer the longstanding question: Are we alone? With its interior ocean and geysers of water ice that shoot out tens of kilometers into space that allegedly ...
Astrobiology
Nov 14, 2022
4
25
In a recent study published in Earth and Planetary Astrophysics, a team of researchers from the University of Texas at Arlington, Valdosta State University, Georgia Institute of Technology, and the National Radio Astronomy ...
Planetary Sciences
Aug 19, 2022
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37
Within the solar system, most of our astrobiological research is aimed at Mars, which is considered to be the next-most habitable body beyond Earth. However, future efforts are aimed at exploring icy satellites in the outer ...
Astrobiology
Jul 1, 2022
0
17
Jupiter's moons are hot.
Space Exploration
Sep 10, 2020
2
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