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Io — Jupiter’s fifth moon — is the most volcanically active body in the solar system. Io’s surface is peppered with hundreds of volcanoes, some spewing sulfurous plumes hundreds of miles high. The volcanic moon is Jupiter’s third-largest and the innermost Galilean satellite, it finds itself caught in a gravitational tug-of-war between Jupiter and two … Read more
THE WOODLANDS, TEXAS—After a year exploring the floor of Mars’s Jezero crater, where it gathered seven—soon to be eight—chalk-size rock samples for return to Earth, NASA’s Perseverance rover is set to speed toward its longstanding target at the crater’s edge: the remnants of a delta, deposited by water billions of years ago, that may contain … Read more
A new sensor aims to send information about volcanic activity and air quality from a tiny satellite as swiftly as possible, to help speed up the response to eruptions. The Nanosat Atmospheric Chemistry Hyperspectral Observation System, or NACHOS, will fly roughly 300 miles (480 kilometers) in altitude above Earth, scanning the ground using a hyperspectral … Read more
When a volcano in Tonga erupted on January 15, it gave satellites their first glimpse at a plume of volcanic ash shooting into the mesosphere, the third layer of Earth’s atmosphere. According to NASA, the Tonga event was the largest volcanic eruption since satellites began monitoring our planet. As the Pacific volcano shot a burst of ash … Read more
Jupiter’s auroras are caused by a cosmic game of “tug-of-war,” fueled by volcanoes on the planet’s innermost moon, Io, new research suggests. NASA’s Juno spacecraft and Hubble Space Telescope have revealed new evidence suggesting Jupiter’s rapid rotation and the release of sulfur and oxygen from volcanoes on Io — the most volcanically active world in … Read more
The bottom of the Arctic Ocean, below the permanent sea ice, is not a friendly place for life. Down there in the cold dark, nutrients and vegetation are sparse; it’s expected that any life that does manage to eke out an existence under these conditions would be likewise thin on the ground. Scientists were … Read more
Jupiter’s auroras – the lights that dance around its poles – are the most distinct in our solar system and over a thousand times brighter than Earth’s aurora. Now, a new study confirms that these otherworldly polar lights come from a unique source: space lava. Jupiter‘s moon Io is the most volcanically active world in the solar … Read more
The search for life on Mars is not an easy one. Not only is the red planet difficult to get to, it’s deeply inhospitable to life as we know it. However, there are places on Earth that could show us how life may have been able to survive on Mars – if not now, then … Read more
The volcanic eruption in the South Pacific Kingdom of Tonga peaked on January 15 with more explosive force than 100 simultaneous Hiroshima bombs, NASA scientists reported on Monday 24 January. Using a combination of satellite and surface-based surveys, researchers calculated the explosive power of the volcano based on the amount of rock that was removed during the blast from the … Read more
A suspected Martian underground lake is probably volcanic rock masquerading as water, according to a new study. In 2018, researchers found evidence that the Red Planet’s southern pole might have water beneath it. The possible water signature was first interpreted from radar observations made by Mars Express, a European Space Agency spacecraft. But a new … Read more