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Analysis of data from a Mars orbiter has revealed geological features consistent with recent volcanic activity on the planet's surface, according to researchers studying the imagery. The findings point to a specific region where deposits and surface patterns resemble those left by volcanic eruptions on Earth.
NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft, which reached Mars in October 2001, and its younger counterpart the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have both far outlasted their original mission timelines of just a few years. The two orbiters continue to gather data on Martian ice and surface changes while also relaying communications from every NASA rover on the surface back to Earth.
A team led by planetary scientist Jorge Hernández-Bernal of Sorbonne Université has produced the first successful computer model explaining the Arsia Mons Elongated Cloud (AMEC), a wispy formation that stretches over 1,000 miles across Mars each spring and summer morning before vanishing. The cloud, first spotted by a probe in 2018, had defied explanation until the simulation incorporated a physical mechanism long treated as theoretical and never previously observed occurring in any planet's atmosphere.
New research models how the Sun's eventual transformation into a red giant and loss of mass will loosen its gravitational grip, potentially destabilizing the orbits of outer solar system bodies much sooner than previous estimates suggested. The findings indicate that as the Sun sheds mass, gravitational interactions between surviving planets could trigger chaotic orbital shifts.
NASA has chosen the GIMLI mission to send a rover to the Marius Hills Pit, a lunar hole roughly 150 feet deep and 300 feet wide, to determine whether it opens into a larger underground lava tube. The rover, built with instruments from Honeybee Robotics including ground-penetrating radar, seismic probes and a gravimeter, will study the pit from the surface rather than orbit for the first time. The project is funded through NASA's Payloads and Research Investigations on the Surface of the Moon program.
Two geologists from Australian National University analyzed zircon minerals in ocean sediments to trace the outlines of the ancient supercontinent Gondwana beneath Antarctica's ice sheet. Their findings, published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters, suggest Antarctica contained substantial material dating to Gondwana's formation between 650 and 450 million years ago.
The International Astronomical Union has officially approved asteroid (14331) Alyankovic, honoring musical satirist 'Weird Al' Yankovic, alongside another asteroid named for Tom Lehrer, the mathematician and satirical songwriter who died last year at 97. The naming effort was led by planetary scientist Allison McGraw with support from several scientists including astrophysicist Steve Desch, Smithsonian curator Tim McCoy, and Spacewatch program leader Melissa Brucker.
Researchers analyzing Mercury's surface features have found that the planet has been shrinking at a faster rate than earlier models suggested, as its interior cools and contracts. The findings come from renewed analysis of geological formations like fault scarps that record the planet's contraction over billions of years.
German Aerospace Center researchers report that Mercury's diameter has contracted by up to 14.5 miles since its formation, 10 to 30 percent more than earlier estimates suggested. The team says debris from impact craters had masked the true extent of this shrinkage, which stems from the planet gradually losing internal heat.
Researchers recalculated how much Mercury's radius has contracted over its history and found the planet has shrunk 10% to 30% more than earlier studies indicated. The updated figures come from reassessing surface features like fault scarps that record the planet's cooling and contraction over billions of years.
A new study published in Nature reveals that the interior beneath Mars' southern hemisphere is roughly 400 to 750 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than the interior beneath its northern hemisphere. Researchers led by University of Arizona scientist Alexander Berne used gravity data to uncover this asymmetry, which contrasts with the long-held assumption that planetary interiors are generally uniform in temperature.