Hubble Finds First Evidence of Water Vapor in the Atmosphere of Jupiter’s Moon Ganymede
Oxygen Found on the Frozen World Is Linked to Sublimating Surface Ice Though larger than the blistering planet Mercury, the Jovian moon Ganymede is no…
Moons
Hear the Eerie Radio Emissions NASA’s Juno Spacecraft Recorded From Jupiter and Its Moon Io
The Juno Waves instrument “listened” to the radio emissions from Jupiter’s immense magnetic field to find their precise locations. By listening to the rain of…
“Beautiful!” – Ride With NASA’s Juno Spacecraft As It Flies Past the Solar System’s Biggest Moon and Jupiter
The probe flew closer to Jupiter’s largest moon, Ganymede, than any other spacecraft in more than two decades, offering dramatic glimpses of both the icy…
Surface of Jupiter’s Moon Europa Churned by Small Impacts – May Currently Have Conditions Suitable for Life
Jupiter’s moon Europa and its global ocean may currently have conditions suitable for life. Scientists are studying processes on the icy surface as they prepare…
Possible Signs of Alien Life? Methane in the Plumes of Saturn’s Moon Enceladus
A study published in Nature Astronomy concludes that known geochemical processes can’t explain the levels of methane measured by the Cassini spacecraft on Saturn’s icy…
Moons of Free-Floating Planets Can Possess Enough Water for Life to Evolve and Thrive
The moons of planets that have no parent star can possess an atmosphere and retain liquid water. Astrophysicists at LMU have calculated that such systems…
NASA Has Just Rejected Missions to the Strange Moons of Jupiter and Neptune – Here’s What We Would Have Discovered
It’s been 30 years since NASA last visited Venus, with the Magellan orbiter in 1990. Now, two new missions have been selected to explore the deadly atmosphere, crushing…
See the Dramatic First Images NASA’s Juno Spacecraft Captured As It Sailed by the Icy Orb, Ganymede
The spacecraft flew closer to Jupiter’s largest moon than any other in more than two decades, offering dramatic glimpses of the icy orb. The first…
Close Encounters of the Jovian Kind: NASA’s Juno to Get a Close Look at Jupiter’s Moon Ganymede
The first of the gas-giant orbiter’s back-to-back flybys will provide a close encounter with the massive moon after over 20 years. On Monday, June 7,…
Jupiter’s Moon Europa May Have an Interior Hot Enough to Fuel Seafloor Volcanoes
Jupiter’s moon Europa has an icy crust covering a vast, global ocean. The rocky layer underneath may be hot enough to melt, leading to undersea…
NASA’s Io Volcano Observer: Following the Heat and Hunting Clues to Planet Evolution
A proposed mission called Io Volcano Observer (IVO) would visit Jupiter’s moon Io, which is a true volcanic wonderland with hundreds of erupting volcanoes gushing…
Encased in an Icy Shell, the Ocean on Saturn’s Moon Enceladus Appears to Be Churning
Buried beneath 20 kilometers of ice, the subsurface ocean of Enceladus—one of Saturn’s moons—appears to be churning with currents akin to those on Earth. The…
Worlds With Underground Oceans – Like Europa, Titan, and Enceladus – May Be More Conducive to Supporting Life Than Earth
Layers of ice and rock obviate the need for “habitable zone” and shield life against threats. SwRI researcher theorizes worlds with underground oceans may be…
Researchers Say They’ve Solved the Puzzling Mystery of the Moons of Mars
Phobos and Deimos are the remains of a larger Martian moon that was disrupted between 1 and 2.7 billion years ago, say researchers from the…
Two Scientists Have Figured Out What Caused Saturn’s Tilt
Two scientists from CNRS and Sorbonne University working at the Institute of Celestial Mechanics and Ephemeris Calculation (Paris Observatory – PSL/CNRS) have just shown that…
Could the Surface of the Martian Moon Phobos Reveal Secrets of Mars’ Past?
The Martian moon Phobos orbits through a stream of charged atoms and molecules that flow off the Red Planet’s atmosphere, new research shows. Many of…
Kraken Mare – a Sea of Liquid Methane on Saturn’s Largest Moon, Titan – Estimated to Be 1,000 Feet Deep
Far below the gaseous atmospheric shroud on Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, lies Kraken Mare, a sea of liquid methane. Cornell astronomers have estimated that sea…
Discovery Provides More Evidence That Saturn’s Moon Enceladus Could Support Life in Its Subsurface Ocean
Models Point to a Potentially Diverse Metabolic Menu at Enceladus Using data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, scientists at Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) modeled chemical processes…