Planetary science articles within Nature Geoscience

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  • Letter |

    A pulse of sulphur dioxide in Venus’s upper atmosphere was observed by the Pioneer Venus spacecraft in the 1970s and 1980s and attributed to volcanism. Recent sulphur dioxide measurements from Venus Express indicate decadal-scale fluctuations in sulphur dioxide above Venus’s cloud tops in an atmosphere that is more dynamic than expected.

    • Emmanuel Marcq
    • , Jean-Loup Bertaux
    •  & Denis Belyaev

  • Letter |

    The nearside and farside of the Moon are compositionally distinct. The detection of low-calcium pyroxene around large impact basins suggests that the huge Procellarum basin on the nearside may be an ancient impact structure and a relic scar of the violent collision that produced the lunar dichotomy.

    • Ryosuke Nakamura
    • , Satoru Yamamoto
    •  & Kazuto Saiki

  • News & Views |

    The surface of the Moon is not totally devoid of water. Analyses of lunar soils reveal that impact glasses contain significant amounts of water, with an isotopic composition that is indicative of an origin from the solar wind.

    • Marc Chaussidon

  • News & Views |

    Clay minerals on Mars have been interpreted as an indication for a warm, wet early climate. A new hypothesis proposes that the minerals instead formed during brief periods of magmatic degassing, diminishing the prospects for signs of life in these settings.

    • Brian Hynek

  • Article |

    Hydrous clay minerals detected on the ancient martian crust have been proposed to have formed by aqueous weathering on a warm, wet early Mars. However, analyses of terrestrial clay minerals and comparisons to Mars suggest that the Noachian clays could have alternatively formed by precipitation from magmatic fluids.

    • Alain Meunier
    • , Sabine Petit
    •  & Eric Ferrage

  • Research Highlights |

    • Tamara Goldin

  • News & Views |

    Iron-loving elements are thought to have been added to Mars, Earth and the Moon after core formation. An analysis of meteorites formed in the first two to three million years of Solar System history suggests that a similar late veneer was added elsewhere too.

    • James Brenan

  • News & Views |

    Enigmatically, some landslides flow farther than normal frictional resistance allows. Cassini images of Saturn's icy moon Iapetus reveal a multitude of long-runout landslides that may have been enabled by flash heating along the sliding surface.

    • Antoine Lucas

  • Editorial |

    While the Olympics kick off in London, a new international sporting arena is taking shape beyond Earth's orbit. Recent advances in space exploration by China and Japan remind us that curiosity about our universe is a truly universal trait.

  • Article |

    The great distance travelled by long-runout landslides, observed previously on the Earth and Mars, requires a mechanism of friction reduction. Identification and analysis of long-runout landslides on Saturn’s moon Iapetus suggests that the Iapetian landslides are enabled by flash heating of the icy sliding surface.

    • Kelsi N. Singer
    • , William B. McKinnon
    •  & Jeffery M. Moore

  • Letter |

    The mantles of the terrestrial planets contain elemental abundances that suggest accretion continued at a late stage, after core formation. Geochemical data of meteorites from differentiated asteroids are consistent with such a late accretion event, suggesting that the phenomenon occurred throughout the Solar System and was related to planet formation.

    • James M. D. Day
    • , Richard J. Walker
    •  & Douglas Rumble III

  • Letter |

    The origin of the dichotomy between the lunar nearside and farside is unclear. Analysis of spectral reflectance data from the Kaguya lunar orbiter indicates a systematic difference in the degree of differentiation in the oldest lunar crustal terrains, linking the lunar dichotomy to crystallization of the magma ocean.

    • Makiko Ohtake
    • , Hiroshi Takeda
    •  & Paul G. Lucey

  • News & Views |

    A giant impact on the young proto-Earth is thought to explain the formation of the Moon. High-precision analysis of titanium isotopes in lunar rocks suggests that the Moon and Earth's mantle are more similar than existing models permit.

    • Matthias M. M. Meier

  • Letter |

    Geochemical evidence continues to challenge giant impact models, which predict that the Moon formed from both proto-Earth and impactor material. Analyses of lunar samples reveal isotopic homogeneity in titanium, a highly refractory element, suggesting lunar material was derived predominantly from the mantle of the proto-Earth.

    • Junjun Zhang
    • , Nicolas Dauphas
    •  & Alexei Fedkin

  • Editorial |

    The Earth's magnetic field protects us from solar activity, but the Moon and Mars are more exposed. The upcoming solar maximum is the perfect time to observe how our dynamic Sun affects its planets.

  • Letter |

    On the Moon, extensional tectonic features have only been observed close to the influence of the mare basalt-filled basins and floor-fractured craters. Analysis of Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera images reveals several potentially very young extensional tectonic features in the farside highlands, implying that extensional stresses may locally exceed compressional ones.

    • Thomas R. Watters
    • , Mark S. Robinson
    •  & Brett W. Denevi

  • Letter |

    The absence of very deep moonquakes implies that the lower mantle of the Moon is partially molten. An analysis of the density range of lunar melts at high pressures suggests that only titanium-rich melt is neutrally buoyant deep within the Moon.

    • Mirjam van Kan Parker
    • , Chrystèle Sanloup
    •  & Wim van Westrenen

  • Research Highlights |

    • Tamara Goldin

  • Letter |

    Saturn’s moon Titan has a dense atmosphere, but its thermal structure is poorly understood. Simulations with a three-dimensional general circulation model suggest that Titan has a lower atmospheric structure with two boundary layers: a seasonal deep layer, and a shallower one that develops during the course of each day.

    • Benjamin Charnay
    •  & Sébastien Lebonnois

  • Letter |

    The stability over time of the zonal jets on the giant planets has been debated. An analysis of observations from the Cassini spacecraft reveals an acceleration of wind velocities in Saturn’s high-altitude equatorial jet between 2004 and 2009, by 20 m s−1 at tropopause level and by 60 m s−1 in the stratosphere.

    • Liming Li
    • , Xun Jiang
    •  & Kevin H. Baines

  • News & Views |

    Analysis of the first Apollo samples suggested that Earth's only satellite was bone dry. Spacecraft data and improved analysis techniques now indicate that the Moon is more volatile-rich and complex than previously thought.

    • David J. Lawrence

  • Letter |

    Phyllosilicate minerals are rare in the Noachian-aged crust of the northern lowlands of Mars, compared with the tropical highlands. Geochemical and climate modelling suggest that this dichotomy is consistent with the presence of a cold ocean fringed by cold-based glaciers.

    • Alberto G. Fairén
    • , Alfonso F. Davila
    •  & James F. Kasting

  • News & Views |

    An exotic arrow-shaped cloud was discovered in the atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan last year. Numerical modelling shows how a large-scale atmospheric wave can naturally shape tropical clouds to such an arrow.

    • Tetsuya Tokano

  • Letter |

    Saturn’s moon Titan exhibits an active weather cycle that involves methane. An analysis of cloud observations and simulations with a general circulation model reveals that convection in Titan’s atmosphere is organized through an interplay of two wave modes, leading to local rates of precipitation of up to twenty times the average.

    • Jonathan L. Mitchell
    • , Máté Ádámkovics
    •  & Elizabeth P. Turtle

  • News & Views |

    Volcanic deposits on the Moon are almost entirely composed of basaltic lava flows that make up the dark and extensive mare plains. High-resolution images and compositional data now reveal rare, non-mare volcanism on the Moon's farside.

    • Noah Petro

  • Article |

    Non-basaltic volcanism is rare on the Moon and has been found predominantly on the lunar nearside. Analysis of Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera images and spectral data reveal the presence of compositionally evolved, non-basaltic volcanism on the lunar farside.

    • Bradley L. Jolliff
    • , Sandra A. Wiseman
    •  & David A. Paige

  • Article |

    Relative contributions to Earth’s total heat flux from the radioactive decay of isotopes versus primordial heat are debated. Measurements of geoneutrino particles emitted during radioactive decay in the Earth’s interior indicate that radiogenic isotopes contribute only about half of the total heat flux.

    • A. Gando
    • , Y. Gando
    •  & M. P. Decowski

  • News & Views |

    Observations from the Cassini–Huygens mission have produced potentially contradictory constraints on the origin of Titan's atmosphere. Experiments and a simple model demonstrate that a new mechanism for late formation is plausible.

    • Catherine Neish

  • Editorial |

    Nature Geoscience has joined Twitter. We share our take on exciting developments in the Earth and planetary sciences as they happen.

  • News & Views |

    Chondritic meteorites are remnants of the ancient Solar System. Analysis of the dust rims often found on their constituent particles shows that the rims were swept up while the particles wafted about and collided in a weakly turbulent protoplanetary nebula.

    • Jeff Cuzzi

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