https://phys.org/space-news/planetary-sciences en-us Planetary science and exoplanets exploration news stories and features from Phys.org Jupiter's ocean moons capture most of our attention because of their potential habitability. But Io, Jupiter's bad-boy volcanic moon, is in a class of its own. There's nothing else like it in the solar system, and NASA's Juno spacecraft captured new images of the volcanic satellite during its closest approach yet. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-juno-closest-flyby-io.html Planetary Sciences Fri, 20 Oct 2023 13:10:07 EDT news617026201 Everyone likes a cool infographic, right? Does that statement hold even if the infographic points out a gap in our knowledge that could kill millions of people? Because that's what a cool-looking infographic NASA released on October 16th does. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-potentially-hazardous-city-killing-asteroids-left.html Planetary Sciences Fri, 20 Oct 2023 13:08:03 EDT news617026081 NASA's Lucy spacecraft is preparing for its first close-up look at an asteroid. On Nov. 1, it will fly by asteroid Dinkinesh and test its instruments in preparation for visits in the next decade to multiple Trojan asteroids that circle the sun in the same orbit as Jupiter. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-nasa-lucy-spacecraft-asteroid-flyby.html Space Exploration Planetary Sciences Thu, 19 Oct 2023 17:25:03 EDT news616955101 Jupiter has some of the most conspicuous atmospheric features in our solar system. The planet's Great Red Spot, large enough to envelop Earth, is nearly as well known as some of the various rivers and mountains on the planet we call home. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-webb-feature-jupiter-atmosphere.html Astronomy Planetary Sciences Thu, 19 Oct 2023 12:13:04 EDT news616936382 If life exists elsewhere in the solar system, it may well reside in the ocean of Jupiter's icy moon Europa. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-nasa-europa-clipper-survive-jupiter.html Space Exploration Planetary Sciences Wed, 18 Oct 2023 12:17:03 EDT news616850221 Psyche was the Greek goddess of the soul, born a mere mortal and later married to Eros, the God of love. Who knows why the Italian astronomer Annibale de Gasparis gave her name to a celestial object he observed one night in 1852? https://phys.org/news/2023-10-nasa-psyche-asteroid-mission-billion.html Space Exploration Planetary Sciences Wed, 18 Oct 2023 12:11:03 EDT news616849861 A team of astronomers and astrophysicists from INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova, Vicolo dell'Osservatorio 5, Universidad Diego Portales, the University of Exeter and Sorbonne Université has found evidence that gas giants may be more common than thought in some parts of the galaxy. In their study, reported in the journal Nature Communications, the group analyzed the mass and movement of 30 stars in the Beta Pictoris Moving Group. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-gas-giants-common-thought-galaxy.html Astronomy Planetary Sciences Wed, 18 Oct 2023 10:50:01 EDT news616844198 A landmark discovery by a collaborative team led by the Planetary Science Institute's Alexis Rodriguez has unveiled evidence of sedimentary plains created by aquifer drainage within Martian collapse formations termed chaotic terrains. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-biosignatures-ancient-mars-mud-lake.html Astrobiology Planetary Sciences Wed, 18 Oct 2023 10:29:03 EDT news616843741 Since NASA's Lucy spacecraft first imaged the asteroid Dinkinesh on Sept. 3, 2023, Lucy has traveled over 33 million miles (54 million km) and is now 4.7 million miles (7.6 million km) away from the small asteroid. However, as Dinkinesh continues on its orbit around the sun, Lucy still has another almost 16 million miles (25 million km) to travel to its meet-up with the asteroid on Nov. 1. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-nasa-lucy-spacecraft-approach-asteroid.html Space Exploration Planetary Sciences Tue, 17 Oct 2023 14:21:54 EDT news616771313 When stars are born, they do it inside a molecular cloud. Astronomers long assumed that the "crèche" supplied all the nutrients that protostars needed to form. However, it turns out they get help from outside the nest. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-protostars-siphon-material.html Astronomy Planetary Sciences Tue, 17 Oct 2023 14:04:03 EDT news616770241 A global team of scientists have announced the results of an unprecedented collaboration to search for the source of the largest ever seismic event recorded on Mars. The study, led by the University of Oxford, rules out a meteorite impact, suggesting instead that the quake was the result of enormous tectonic forces within Mars' crust. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-international-team-reveals-source-largest.html Planetary Sciences Tue, 17 Oct 2023 09:01:03 EDT news616752061 The Space Age is leaving fingerprints on one of the most remote parts of the planet—the stratosphere—which has potential implications for climate, the ozone layer and the continued habitability of Earth. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-signatures-space-age-spacecraft-metals.html Space Exploration Planetary Sciences Mon, 16 Oct 2023 15:00:01 EDT news616679367 The Kuiper Belt, the vast region at the edge of our solar system populated by countless icy objects, is a treasure trove of scientific discoveries. The detection and characterization of Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs), sometimes referred to as Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs), has led to a new understanding of the history of the solar system. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-jwst-kuiper-belt-sedna-gonggong.html Astronomy Planetary Sciences Mon, 16 Oct 2023 13:37:04 EDT news616682221 One of the most exciting findings from NASA's Dawn mission is that Ceres, the largest object in the asteroid belt that lies between Mars and Jupiter, hosts complex organics. The discovery of aliphatic molecules, which consist of carbon and hydrogen chains, in conjunction with evidence that Ceres has abundant water ice and may have been an ocean world, means this dwarf planet might have once harbored the main ingredients associated with life as we know it. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-hypervelocity-impact-probe-dwarf-planet.html Astrobiology Planetary Sciences Mon, 16 Oct 2023 12:07:46 EDT news616676863 Researchers using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope have detected evidence for quartz nanocrystals in the high-altitude clouds of WASP-17 b, a hot Jupiter exoplanet 1,300 light-years from Earth. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-webb-quartz-crystals-clouds-hot.html Astronomy Planetary Sciences Mon, 16 Oct 2023 11:01:03 EDT news616672861 On September 24 this year, a NASA capsule parachuted down to Earth carrying a precious cache of material grabbed from an asteroid. The space agency has now revealed images and a preliminary analysis of the space rocks it found after lifting the lid off that capsule. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-osiris-rex-nasa-reveals-evidence-carbon.html Space Exploration Planetary Sciences Sat, 14 Oct 2023 12:20:01 EDT news616414440 It's a world like no other: a metal-rich asteroid that could be the remnants of a small planet, or perhaps an entirely new type of celestial body unknown to science. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-nasa-journeys-metal-rich-asteroid-psyche.html Space Exploration Planetary Sciences Sat, 14 Oct 2023 09:40:01 EDT news616495089 Throughout the 20th century, multiple proposals have been made for the crewed exploration of Mars. These include the famed "Mars Project" by Werner von Braun, the "Mars Direct" mission architecture by Robert Zubrin and David Baker, NASA's Mars Design Reference Mission studies, and SpaceX's Mars & Beyond plan. By 2033, two space agencies (NASA and the CNSA) plan to commence sending crews and payloads to the Red Planet. These and other space agencies envision building bases there that could eventually lead to permanent settlements and the first "Martians." https://phys.org/news/2023-10-comprehensive-blueprint-settlement-mars.html Space Exploration Planetary Sciences Fri, 13 Oct 2023 13:49:06 EDT news616423741 It's unlikely to be a bad omen, but NASA's mission Psyche is currently due to launch on Friday 13 October. Lifting off at 10:19 EDT on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, it faces a perilous journey and isn't scheduled for arrival at its namesake asteroid, 16 Pscyhe, until 2029. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-nasa-psyche-mission-unveil-interior.html Space Exploration Planetary Sciences Fri, 13 Oct 2023 11:39:06 EDT news616415943 NASA's Psyche spacecraft rocketed away Friday on a six-year journey to a rare metal-covered asteroid. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-nasa-spacecraft-mysterious-rare-metal.html Space Exploration Planetary Sciences Fri, 13 Oct 2023 10:28:08 EDT news616411682 For the first time ever, a NASA probe is journeying to an object composed not of rock, ice, or gas, but metal: the asteroid Psyche. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-nasa-mission-metal-world.html Planetary Sciences Thu, 12 Oct 2023 15:54:21 EDT news616344855 It's a world like no other: a metal-rich asteroid that could be the remnants of a small planet, or perhaps an entirely new type of celestial body unknown to science. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-nasa-journey-metal-rich-asteroid.html Space Exploration Planetary Sciences Thu, 12 Oct 2023 15:53:44 EDT news616344819 At the very center of the Earth is a core of metal—so hot and so deep down as to be unreachable and impossible to study directly. But we might learn more about it and the cores of other Earth-like planets by studying the asteroid Psyche. Based on observations made through telescopes, it is believed to consist of 60% metal, probably an iron and nickel alloy. Looking a bit like a potato and measuring about 150x250 km, Psyche may be the innermost core of a planet that, following a violent collision with another object, was stripped of its outer crust. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-sensitive-instruments-explore-metal-rich-asteroid.html Space Exploration Planetary Sciences Thu, 12 Oct 2023 13:28:05 EDT news616336081 NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft flew by Earth on Sept. 24, 2023, dropping off its sample of dust and pebbles gathered from the surface of near-Earth asteroid Bennu. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-astronomers-lots-universebut-astronomical-distant.html Astronomy Planetary Sciences Thu, 12 Oct 2023 13:15:03 EDT news616335301 The afterglow of a massive collision between two giant planets may have been detected for the first time. The wreckage of the collision could eventually cool and form an entirely new planet. If the observation is confirmed, it provides an amazing opportunity to watch the birth of a new world in real time and open a window into how planets form. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-afterglow-explosive-collision-giant-planets.html Astronomy Planetary Sciences Thu, 12 Oct 2023 12:42:03 EDT news616333321 Even with the clearest image from the best telescope in the world, astronomers still won't know what they're looking at. It takes a fundamental understanding of physics, particularly how light works, to glean scientific data from the images that telescopes like the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) capture. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-exoplanet-volcanoes.html Astronomy Planetary Sciences Thu, 12 Oct 2023 12:13:03 EDT news616331581 It may be possible to create paved roads and landing pads on the moon by using lasers to melt lunar soil into a more solid, layered substance, reports a proof-of-concept study in Scientific Reports. Although these experiments were carried out on Earth using a substitute for lunar dust, these findings demonstrate the viability of the technique and suggest it could be replicated on the moon. However, further work may be needed to refine the process, according to the authors. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-small-lunar-roads-potentially-giant.html Space Exploration Planetary Sciences Thu, 12 Oct 2023 11:00:01 EDT news616320072 The spacecraft is targeting an Oct. 12 liftoff atop a Falcon Heavy rocket. Its destination, a metal-rich asteroid, may tell us more about how planets form. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-journey-metal-rich-world-nasa-psyche.html Space Exploration Planetary Sciences Wed, 11 Oct 2023 15:50:01 EDT news616250523 If all goes well, on Thursday morning a NASA mission with extensive connections to MIT will be headed to a metal world. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-psyche-journey-ancient-asteroid.html Space Exploration Planetary Sciences Wed, 11 Oct 2023 12:20:07 EDT news616245603 A sample collected from the 4.5-billion-year-old asteroid Bennu contains abundant water and carbon, NASA revealed on Wednesday, offering more evidence for the theory that life on Earth was seeded from outer space. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-nasa-asteroid-sample-life-critical-carbon.html Space Exploration Planetary Sciences Wed, 11 Oct 2023 12:10:25 EDT news616245003