Inner planets articles within Nature

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Using multiply diffracted P waves and first-principles computations of the thermoelastic properties of liquid iron-rich alloys, we show that the core of Mars is smaller and denser than previously thought.

    • A. Khan
    • , D. Huang
    •  & M. Murakami

  • Article |

    It is reported using a consistent climate model that pure steam atmospheres are commonly shaped by radiative layers, making their thermal structure strongly dependent on the stellar spectrum and internal heat flow.

    • Franck Selsis
    • , Jérémy Leconte
    •  & Émeline Bolmont

  • Article |

    Measurements from the Chang’e-1 and Chang’e-2 microwave instruments reveal an anomalously hot geothermal source on the Moon that is best explained by a roughly 50-kilometre-diameter granitic system below the geological feature known as Compton–Belkovich.

    • Matthew A. Siegler
    • , Jianqing Feng
    •  & Mackenzie N. White

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The nucleosynthetic composition of silicon in meteorites indicates that material akin to early-formed differentiated asteroids must represent a major constituent of terrestrial planets such as Earth and Mars.

    • Isaac J. Onyett
    • , Martin Schiller
    •  & Martin Bizzarro

  • Article |

    The authors report on a temperate Earth-sized planet orbiting the cool M6 dwarf LP 791-18 with a radius of 1.03 ± 0.04 R⊕ and an equilibrium temperature of 300–400 K, with the permanent night side plausibly allowing for water condensation.

    • Merrin S. Peterson
    • , Björn Benneke
    •  & Thomas Barclay

  • Article |

    Oxygen isotope compositions of dated magmatic zircon show that the Pilbara Craton in Western Australia, Earth’s best-preserved Archaean continental remnant, was built in three stages initiated by a giant meteorite impact.

    • Tim E. Johnson
    • , Christopher L. Kirkland
    •  & Michael I. H. Hartnady

  • Article |

    Cloud-top thermal images obtained by the Akatsuki orbiter show that Venus has almost null mean meridional circulation at the cloud top, because poleward circulation on the dayside is offset by equatorward circulation on the nightside.

    • Kiichi Fukuya
    • , Takeshi Imamura
    •  & Masato Nakamura

  • Letter |

    The widespread rimmed grooves, lineations and elongate craters extending from the Imbrium impact basin on the Moon, termed the Imbrium Sculpture, includes a non-radial component that is used to infer that the Imbrium impactor was the size of a proto-planet—about half the diameter of Vesta.

    • Peter H. Schultz
    •  & David A. Crawford

  • Letter |

    Polar hydrogen deposits on the Moon provide evidence that its spin axis has shifted; analysis of the locations of these deposits and of the lunar figure suggests that the shift occurred as a result of changes in the Moon’s moments of inertia caused by a low-density thermal anomaly beneath the Procellarum region.

    • M. A. Siegler
    • , R. S. Miller
    •  & M. J. Poston

  • Letter |

    A low-mass star that is just 12 parsecs away from Earth is shown to be transited by an Earth-sized planet, GJ 1132b, which probably has a rock/iron composition and might support a substantial atmosphere.

    • Zachory K. Berta-Thompson
    • , Jonathan Irwin
    •  & Anaël Wünsche

  • Letter |

    The Moon is thought to have formed mainly from a giant impactor striking the Earth but it has seemed odd that the Earth and its impactor (and hence the Moon) had such similar compositions; here simulations of planetary accretion show that although the different planets have distinct compositions, the composition of each giant impactor is indeed often very similar to that of the planet it strikes.

    • Alessandra Mastrobuono-Battisti
    • , Hagai B. Perets
    •  & Sean N. Raymond

  • Letter |

    Analysis of the Moon's topography reveals that when its largest basins are removed, the lunar shape is consistent with processes controlled by early Earth tides, and implies a reorientation of the Moon's principal shape axes.

    • Ian Garrick-Bethell
    • , Viranga Perera
    •  & Maria T. Zuber

  • Letter |

    A new bombardment model of the early Earth, calibrated with existing lunar and terrestrial data, shows that the Earth’s surface would have been widely reprocessed by impacts through mixing and burial by impact-generated melt; the model may also explain the age distribution of ancient zircons and the absence of early terrestrial rocks.

    • S. Marchi
    • , W. F. Bottke
    •  & D. A. Kring

  • Letter |

    Isotopic analyses of 40 Martian meteorites indicate that assimilation of sulphur into Martian magmas was a common occurrence throughout much of the planet’s history and that the atmospheric imprint of photochemical processing preserved in Martian meteoritic sulphide and sulphate is distinct from that observed in terrestrial analogues.

    • Heather B. Franz
    • , Sang-Tae Kim
    •  & James Dottin III

  • Letter |

    A large number of N-body simulations of the giant-impact phase of planet formation, combined with the measured concentrations of highly siderophile elements in Earth’s mantle, reveal that the Moon must have formed at least 40 million years after the condensation of the first solids of the Solar System.

    • Seth A. Jacobson
    • , Alessandro Morbidelli
    •  & David C. Rubie

  • Article |

    Several irregularly shaped craters located within Arabia Terra, Mars, are interpreted as a new type of highland volcanic construct, similar to supervolcanoes on Earth, fundamentally changing the picture of ancient volcanism and climate evolution on Mars.

    • Joseph R. Michalski
    •  & Jacob E. Bleacher

  • Letter |

    Newly determined ratios and abundances of sulphur, selenium and tellurium in mantle peridotites are consistent with the view that a ‘late veneer’ of slightly volatile-depleted, carbonaceous-chondrite-like material supplied between 20 and 100 per cent of the silicate Earth’s highly volatile elements, such as hydrogen and carbon.

    • Zaicong Wang
    •  & Harry Becker

  • Letter |

    Analysis of craters on Mercury’s oldest, most heavily cratered terrains shows that they were formed 4.0–4.1 billion years ago, and that the planet’s previous geological history was erased, most probably by voluminous volcanism, which may have been triggered by heavy asteroidal bombardment at that time.

    • Simone Marchi
    • , Clark R. Chapman
    •  & Robert G. Strom

  • Letter |

    The compositions of the 3.7-billion-year-old surface rocks on Mars — as observed by the Spirit rover at Gusev crater — are shown to be consistent with early mixing of oxidized surface material into the uppermost Martian mantle: such oxidation appears to have had less influence on more recent volcanic rocks, which are sampled as Martian meteorites.

    • J. Tuff
    • , J. Wade
    •  & B. J. Wood

  • Letter |

    Terrestrial planets can be divided into two distinct types on the basis of their evolutionary history during solidification from their initial molten state: type I planets (such as Earth) solidify within several million years and retain most of their water, and type II planets (possibly such as Venus), formed inside a critical distance, are desiccated by hydrodynamic escape.

    • Keiko Hamano
    • , Yutaka Abe
    •  & Hidenori Genda

  • Letter |

    Measurements of the viscous anisotropy of highly deformed polycrystalline olivine find it to be approximately an order of magnitude larger than that predicted by grain-scale simulations; the maximum degree of anisotropy is reached at geologically low shear strain, such that deforming regions of the Earth’s upper mantle should exhibit significant viscous anisotropy.

    • L. N. Hansen
    • , M. E. Zimmerman
    •  & D. L. Kohlstedt

  • Editorial |

    Enjoy Curiosity on Mars. We may not see its like again.

  • News |

    After a picture-perfect landing, Curiosity’s science team ponders its first moves at Gale Crater.

    • Eric Hand

  • News |

    Follow the action as NASA's Curiosity rover heads for its rendezvous with the red planet. 

  • News & Views |

    The origin of the planet Mercury has been a continuing puzzle. Data from NASA's MESSENGER space probe, combined with ground-based observations, are delivering information on the planet's structure and evolution.

    • David J. Stevenson

  • Editorial |

    Latest mission to Mars promises close-up view of planet's surface.

  • News |

    Curiosity rover will explore Gale Crater, which may hold clues to past habitability.

    • Eric Hand

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