News Item
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Alexandra Witze
Summary: NASA's InSight mission has provided the first data on the internal structure of a planet other than Earth, revealing surprising cake-like layers in the crust of Mars.
Article
Geochemistry & Geophysics
E. J. Leonard, A. Yin, R. T. Pappalardo
Summary: The Leading Hemisphere Terrain (LHT) of Enceladus has undergone distributed deformation with the development of ductile strike-slip shear zones and sparse craters, possibly driven by toroidal flow of ice-shell material. The observed deformation may require a high heat flux and thin brittle layer, or could have formed under high stress conditions.
JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-PLANETS
(2021)
Review
Biology
Francisco Calapez, Rodrigo Dias, Rute Cesario, Diogo Goncalves, Bruno Pedras, Joao Canario, Zita Martins
Summary: The search for potential extraterrestrial life forms focuses on the icy moons of the solar system with subsurface oceans. Understanding the interactions between the ice shells, liquid layers, and silicate mantles of these moons is crucial for determining their habitability. This review highlights the use of spectroscopy as a powerful tool in space missions to detect potential biosignatures and the significance of using the polar regions of Earth as planetary field analogues for studying these extraterrestrial environments.
News Item
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Alexandra Witze
Summary: Scientists are seeking guidance on responsibly exploring the frozen caches at the lunar poles to prevent contamination of the Moon's precious ice.
Article
Astronomy & Astrophysics
Erica Nathan, Katiyayni Balachandran, Paolo Cappuccio, Julia Di, Kelsey Doerksen, Alessia Gloder, Monica Li, Lotfi Massarweh, Thomas Peev, Shreya Santra, Marc Rovira-Navarro, Dan Limonchik
Summary: This paper presents a concept study for a New Frontiers class mission to Enceladus, aiming to investigate the habitability of Enceladus and explore its scientific potential. The mission architecture includes an orbiter for chemical analysis and impact landers for geophysical measurements.
FRONTIERS IN ASTRONOMY AND SPACE SCIENCES
(2022)
News Item
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Alexandra Witze
Summary: NASA's Ingenuity helicopter successfully hovered for 40 seconds in Mars's thin atmosphere.
News Item
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Alexandra Witze
Summary: The Mars helicopter's creation of "cool" dust clouds has unexpectedly provided researchers with new insight into natural "dust devils" on the red planet.
News Item
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Alexandra Witze
Summary: After completing its first year on Mars, Perseverance will explore an ancient delta in search of evidence of past life.
Editorial Material
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Matthew M. Hedman
Summary: A distant object in the Solar System has a ring that is located unusually far from its main body, leading to speculation about the prevention of clumping for moon formation.
News Item
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Elizabeth Gibney
Summary: Scientists are determining the time that local atomic clocks will keep for satellite navigation systems in lunar settlements.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
James S. New, Bahar Kazemi, Vassilia Spathis, Mark C. Price, Richard A. Mathies, Anna L. Butterworth
Summary: Experiments on sampling ice particles from Enceladus plumes reveal that organic capture efficiency depends on impact velocity, particle size, and capture surface, with the system predicted to detect organic molecules in plume ice at the 1 nM level, providing meaningful information for probing habitability and biosignatures.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2021)
Editorial Material
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Virginia Gewin, Savannah Braden
Summary: Savannah Braden monitors how fruits ripen and rot in order to reduce food waste.
News Item
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Davide Castelvecchi
Summary: Europe's JUICE spacecraft will study three out of Jupiter's four Galilean moons: Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa.
Editorial Material
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Julia V. V. Seidel, Louise D. D. Nielsen
Summary: An unprecedented observation of a distant planet provides insights into its formation, highlighting its significance in atmospheric chemistry research. Scientists celebrate the breakthrough enabled by advanced technology.
Article
Geochemistry & Geophysics
A. O. Warren, S. Holo, E. S. Kite, S. A. Wilson
Summary: This study investigates the formation process of pollywog craters on Mars, revealing that most craters are formed by a single overspill event, while three craters require multiple events or sustained water supply for erosion. Discussions on potential source mechanisms for crater-filling water and explanations for the observed mismatch between data and models are included.
EARTH AND PLANETARY SCIENCE LETTERS
(2021)
