Tag Archives: subsurface

On Earth, water is the key to all life, but there doesn’t seem to be much of it on other planets… at least at first glance. As we explore more of our solar system, water has been appearing in some surprising places. We now know Mars is not entirely bone …

A novel theory proposed by planetary scientists from Caltech and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory challenges the current thinking that the saltwater global ocean of Enceladus, the sixth largest moon of Saturn, is homogenous. Enceladus’ tiger stripes are known to be spewing ice from the moon’s icy interior into space, creating …

In a study published this month in the journal Icarus, planetary researchers from the United States and Germany modeled chemical processes in the subsurface ocean of Enceladus, the sixth-largest of Saturn’s moons. Enceladus’ tiger stripes are known to be spewing ice from the moon’s icy interior into space, creating a …

Lunar Subsurface May Be Richer in Metals than Previously Thought Using data from the Miniature Radio Frequency (Mini-RF) instrument onboard NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), a team of U.S. researchers has characterized the dust found at the bottom of the Moon’s craters and found evidence that the lunar subsurface might …

Was Hot and Had Subsurface Ocean: Study Pluto is thought to possess a subsurface ocean beneath its thick ice shell. It has generally been assumed that the dwarf planet formed out of cold material and then later developed its ocean due to warming from radioactive decay. By combining numerical simulations …

A new study, based on microwave observations by NASA’s Cassini orbiter, shows that the south polar region of Saturn’s frozen moon Enceladus is warmer than expected just a few feet below its surface. This suggests that Enceladus’ subsurface sea might be lurking only a few miles beneath — closer to …

Frozen beneath Utopia Planitia, a large plain on Mars, lies about as much water as what’s in Lake Superior, according to an international team of planetary researchers. This image is an artist’s concept of a view looking down on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The spacecraft is pictured using its SHARAD …