By modeling the waves produced by a massive, ancient impact, scientists have begun to unlock the secrets of Pluto’s interior.
Planetary interiors
Posted inEditors' Highlights
The Freshest Mineral Water in the Solar System
The water-rich plumes erupting from Saturn’s moon Enceladus show the chemical signs of water-rock interactions deep within the moon, further implicating Enceladus as a potential habitat for life.
Posted inNews
Massive Collision Cracked Young Jupiter’s Core
The gas giant’s interior reveals evidence of an ancient impact.
Posted inNews
Webb Telescope May Detect Minerals from Shredded Worlds
The upcoming James Webb Space Telescope should be able to measure the composition of vaporizing exoplanets, giving clues about the makeup of their cores, mantles, and crusts.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
How Did Venus Get its Youthful Surface?
Catastrophic lithospheric recycling is unlikely to be the cause of Venus’s young surface from mantle convection models constrained by offset between the center of mass and center of shape of planet.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Martian Mantle Models Pave the Way for NASA's InSight Lander
The most detailed simulations to date of how heat flows through Mars's interior are good news for the upcoming lander and will help scientists interpret its data.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Becoming Habitable in the Habitable Zone
Scientists explore how interactions between a rocky planet's climate, mantle, and core can affect its evolution and determine whether it could sustain life.
Posted inScience Updates
Volatiles in Mars: Constraints, Questions, and Future Directions
Workshop on Volatiles in the Martian Interior; Houston, Texas, 3–4 November 2014