Rings and moons articles from across Nature Portfolio

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.

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.

Metallic iron nanoparticles within impact-generated glass on the Moon contain very high concentrations of Helium-3 imparted by space weathering and may represent an important helium reservoir, according to nanoscale observations of lunar soil samples.

The Moon’s gravity field preserves a record of the overturn of the early lunar mantle and sinking of dense ilmenite-bearing cumulates, according to a comparison of Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory gravity data and geodynamic models.

Digital twins can be used to support planetary operations and analysis. Here, the authors show tri-aspect characterization of lunar far side regolith and investigate the origin of a fin-shaped rock via digital twin of Yutu-2 rover.

Water molecules in Europa’s icy surface are split into hydrogen and oxygen by charged particle bombardment. NASA’s Juno spacecraft flew near Europa and constrained the production of oxygen in Europa’s surface ice, thus providing only a narrow range to support habitability in its subsurface ocean.

Shallow cumulus cloud cover decreases during solar eclipses in response to reduced sunlight and associated cooling of land surfaces, according to an analysis of geostationary satellite measurements of clouds and large-eddy simulations over 2005-2016.

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.

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.

The two Moon landing attempts of the Luna 25 and the Chandrayaan-3 missions in close succession are symbolic of the renewed international push to go back to the Moon on a more consistent basis, which is shaping up to be one of the main space exploration narratives of our time.

Observations using JWST show water, probably from a subsurface ocean on Saturn’s icy moon, spewing into a large plume that extends far beyond the moon’s surface. This continuous outgassing results in a torus of water along Enceladus’s orbit and is so intense that the plume is the prime source of water across the Saturnian system.