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Planetary science is the study of the celestial bodies that orbit stars, with a particular focus on our own solar system. This includes studying the formation and evolution of planets, the moons and rings that orbit them, and other smaller bodies such as asteroids and comets.
There are no good models for the chemical evolution of the Earth’s surface over the planet’s lifetime, because models typically overlook the progressive build-up of carbonate rocks in the crust. A new model that includes this accumulation enables the reconstruction of major oxygen and temperature trends throughout Earth’s history.
The Moon’s primordial solidification is believed to have produced a layer of dense ilmenite cumulates beneath the crust. Remnants of this layer have now been detected under the lunar nearside.
Pollution by per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) is widespread in global water resources and likely to be underestimated, according to global analysis of available PFAS data.
Simulated close encounters between planetary systems and other stars reveal that outer giant planets on wide orbits tend to be ejected, with a fraction of them forming bound pairs. This scenario would lead to a population of free-floating binary planets in dense stellar environments
The Earth co-orbital asteroid Kamo‘oalewa, which is a target of the Chinese Tianwen-2 mission, may have a lunar origin instead of an asteroidal one. Dynamical constraints from numerical simulations suggest that it could be an escaping fragment from the lunar Giordano Bruno crater.
Many volatile elements are depleted in the bulk silicate Earth. Here, the authors found that these volatile elements tend to react with Fe under pressure and may be sequestered within Earth’s core by forming substitutional Fe alloys.
Foreign material delivered as a giant impact can dominate large portions of icy dwarf planets, according to impact simulations. This scenario may explain the peculiar shape and location of the Sputnik Planitia region on Pluto, without the need for a present-day subsurface ocean.
The Isua Supercrustal Belt in Greenland hosts sedimentary rocks that were deposited 3.7 billion years ago in the forearc environment of an active convergent plate boundary, suggesting subduction-related plate tectonics in the Eoarchean, as indicated by geochemical data and tectonostratigraphic analyses of an 80-m drill core.
In response to concerns raised by the Navajo Nation on treating the Moon as a grave, NASA has a unique opportunity to advance the conversation with Indigenous communities regarding how we interact with space environments, and who gets to decide.
There are no good models for the chemical evolution of the Earth’s surface over the planet’s lifetime, because models typically overlook the progressive build-up of carbonate rocks in the crust. A new model that includes this accumulation enables the reconstruction of major oxygen and temperature trends throughout Earth’s history.
