Planetary Science Stories
![On a black background, a large orange and white orb is surrounded by a diffuse, grainy, orange halo. The halo appears to have more material on its right side than its left.](https://science.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/hubble-maven-mars-feature-stsci-01j6a1t00q0jdpwn14jyqxyr95.jpg?w=4096&format=jpeg)
NASA’s Hubble, MAVEN Help Solve the Mystery of Mars’ Escaping Water
Mars was once a very wet planet as is evident in its surface geological features. Scientists know that over the last 3 billion years, at least some water went deep underground, but what happened to the rest? Now, NASA’s Hubble…
![](https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/1-pia26386-d2024-0717-rl0018059-med-e1724859153254.jpg?w=4096&format=jpeg)
Work Is Under Way on NASA’s Next-Generation Asteroid Hunter
The mirrors for NASA’s Near-Earth Object Surveyor space telescope are being installed and aligned, and work on other spacecraft components is accelerating. NASA’s new asteroid-hunting spacecraft is taking shape at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. Called NEO Surveyor…
![A barn owl flying at night.](https://science.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/owl-kelsey-perrett.jpg?w=4096&format=jpeg)
Eclipse Soundscapes AudioMoth Donations Will Study Nature at Night
During the April 8, 2024 total solar eclipse, approximately 770 AudioMoth recording devices were used to capture sound data as part of the Eclipse Soundscapes Project — a multisensory participatory science (also known as “citizen science”) project that is studying…
![On the deck of a ship, a large A-frame style crane is lifting a submersible research vehicle into the air, as crew members hold taglines connecting to the vehicle, preparing to deploy it into the ocean.](https://science.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/ouralienearth-episode3-still3.png?w=4096&format=png)
The Making of Our Alien Earth: The Undersea Volcanoes of Santorini, Greece
The following expedition marks the third installment of NASA Astrobiology’s fieldwork series, the newly rebranded Our Alien Earth, streaming on NASA+. Check out all three episodes following teams of astrobiologists from the lava fields of Holuhraun, Iceland, to the Isua…
![](https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/d81-0962.jpg?w=4096&format=jpeg)
NASA Shares Asteroid Bennu Sample in Exchange with JAXA
As part of an asteroid sample exchange, NASA has transferred to JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) a portion of the asteroid Bennu sample collected by the agency’s OSIRIS-REx mission. The sample was officially handed over by NASA officials during a…
![Seven people, with large backpacks, hiking down a hill of lumpy snow dusted with beige volcanic ash. Behind them is a steep wall of dirt with streaks of fresh green shrubbery. The people appear tiny against the landscape and are all in the left half of the image. On the right are overlapping views of three distinct geological formations: a light-colored slope in the foreground, a tan and orange river gorge in the middle ground, and snow-capped mountains in the background, under a partly cloudy sky.](https://science.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/vtts1-hikeoutlandscape.jpg?w=4096&format=jpeg)
Into The Field With NASA: Valley Of Ten Thousand Smokes
To better understand Mars, NASA's Goddard Instrument Field Team headed deep into the backcountry of Katmai National Park.
![Thre children, a boy and two girls, sit on a model rock formation.](https://science.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/pte-2024-winners-grc-e1723651909904.jpg?w=4096&format=jpeg)
Perseverance Pays Off for Student Challenge Winners
As radioisotopes power the Perseverance rover to explore Mars, perseverance “powered” three winners to write essays each year till they achieved their mission goal of winning NASA’s Power to Explore Challenge. These students explored behind the scenes at NASA's Glenn…
![Nine students in a classroom (left) listening to Dr. Alissa Bans (right).](https://science.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/img-20240612-095617685-alex-lewis.jpg?w=4096&format=jpeg)
Astro Campers SCoPE Out New Worlds
Teachers at Smokey Mountain Elementary School have collaborated with the NASA Science Activation (SciAct) program’s Smoky Mountains STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) Collaborative (SMSC) and project coordinator, Randi Neff, to create a summer camp for students who are passionate…
![Swirling magnetic field lines extend from a CAD model of the Psyche spacecraft.](https://science.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/psychefieldlines3.png?w=4096&format=png)
Quantum Scale Sensors used to Measure Planetary Scale Magnetic Fields
Magnetic fields are everywhere in our solar system. They originate from the Sun, planets, and moons, and are carried throughout interplanetary space by solar wind. This is precisely why magnetometers—devices used to measure magnetic fields—are flown on almost all missions…
![](https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/exomars2018-rover-20140321-9khero-jpg-1240x510-q85-crop-subsampling-2.jpg?w=4096&format=jpeg)
NASA Trains Machine Learning Algorithm for Mars Sample Analysis
When a robotic rover lands on another world, scientists have a limited amount of time to collect data from the troves of explorable material, because of short mission durations and the length of time to complete complex experiments. That’s why…