Planetary Science

Planetary Science News

Mars sand ridge preserves record of powerful ancient winds
03-02-2026
A 6.5-foot-high sand ridge on Mars has emerged as one of the clearest signs that powerful, steady winds once shaped the planet’s surface for long stretches of time. EAPS PhD student Noah Martin documented how the crest lines trace a prolonged north-south airflow across the region.

As Earth slowed its spin, oceans may have tipped the balance for life
02-16-2026
Earth has not always rotated at the same speed it does today. Over the roughly 4 billion years that life has existed on the planet, Earth's rotation has gradually slowed, lengthening days and quietly reshaping the oceans. New research from Purdue University suggests that this planetary slowdown may have played an important role in making Earth's oceans more hospitable for life

Purdue grad plays major role in NASA’s Artemis II mission
02-13-2026
FOX59/CBS4 — The historic Artemis II launch has been postponed to March following technical difficulties identified during a wet dress rehearsal on Feb. 6, including operational issues from the bitter cold and a hydrogen leak in the Space Launch System (SLS) Rocket. EAPS's Briony Horgan was interviewed for this article.

Advancing Space Exploration at Purdue
01-16-2026
The 2nd annual Advancing Space Exploration at Purdue Symposium, hosted by the College of Science, will bring together leaders from inside and outside Purdue to discuss opportunities for universities to work with industry partners to make the next giant leap in robotic and human space exploration.

Mars Perseverance rover found a rock that could be a giant meteorite
01-08-2026
Earth — NASA’s Perseverance rover has spotted a desk-sized rock, nicknamed Phippsaksla, on Mars that looks suspiciously like an iron-rich meteorite. EAPS's Candice Bedford was cited in the article.

Perseverance continues science mission amid uncertainty about Mars Sample Return
01-06-2026
SpaceNews — NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover is continuing its mission to collect samples despite uncertainty about how, when or even if those samples will be returned to Earth. At a press briefing during the Annual Meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) here Dec. 17, project officials said the rover, which landed in Jezero Crater nearly five years ago, is in good condition as it ascends out of the crater. EAPS's Briony Horgan was quoted in the article.

Mars rover: New clues about the ancient atmosphere
01-06-2026
AP — Briony Horgan is a professor of planetary science at Purdue University and a tactical science lead on NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover mission. Horgan is among the authors of the important study "Carbonated ultramafic rocks in Jezero crater, Mars," released in the journal Science.

NASA will soon find out if the Perseverance rover can really persevere on Mars
12-19-2025
Ars Technica — When the Perseverance rover arrived on Mars nearly five years ago, NASA officials thought the next American lander to take aim on the red planet would be taking shape by now. EAPS's Briony Horgan was quoted in the article.

Inside NASA's Prep for the Moon, Mars, and the Search for Life
12-11-2025
NASA on YouTube — NASA experts take you behind the scenes in Iceland, where they study icy volcanoes, lava fields, hydrothermal vents, and other extreme environments that mimic other worlds. EAPS Assistant Professor Ali Bramson and her research team are working to figure out how astronauts can find and characterize water/ice and what is needed to prepare them for these activities.

The evolutionary history of kissing, moss in space, and the origins of the moon
12-11-2025
NPR Short Wave Podcast— Now, a new paper in the journal Science is attempting to figure out what this object Theia was made out of and where in the solar system it came from. EAPS's Kelsey Prissel made an appearance on the podcast.

NASA’s Perseverance Rover Found Evidence of Tropical Storms on Mars
12-10-2025
Vice — In a new study published in Communications Earth and Environment, led by Adrian Broz of Purdue University EAPS, researchers report that these aluminum-rich rocks scattered around Jezero Crater have the same chemical signature as kaolinite formed in Earth’s tropical climates after millions of years of water slowly stripping minerals from rock.

Mars May Have Lightning, Scientists Find
10-10-2025
Scientific American — For years scientists have suspected that there is electrical activity on Mars. A study now confirms it: particles in the dusty Martian atmosphere rub against one another, building up electrical charge that discharges in the form of tiny lightning arcs. Aside from Earth, lightning and electrical activity were only known to occur on Saturn and Jupiter. EAPS's Roger Wiens was quoted in the article.

Findings suggest red planet was warmer, wetter billions of years ago
12-10-2025
Rocks that stood out as light-colored dots on the reddish-orange surface of Mars now are the latest evidence that areas of the small planet may have once supported wet oases with humid climates and heavy rainfall comparable to tropical climates on Earth.

Scientists say Bennu samples hold a trove of life-building ingredients
12-10-2025
MSN — Work led by planetary scientists at Purdue University describes Bennu as a carbonaceous asteroid whose composition fits with scenarios in which such bodies helped in seeding the early Earth with both water and carbon. In that picture, brine-filled pores and fractures on the parent body would have acted as miniature chemical reactors, cycling organics through different temperatures and concentrations.

Mars Sample That May Contain Evidence of Life Might Never Come Home
11-19-2025
Scientific American — Right now one of the most advanced planetary explorers ever built is scouring the surface of Mars. Supported by a team of hundreds of scientists back on Earth, the Perseverance rover has traveled nearly the distance of a marathon to answer some of the biggest questions about our neighboring world. EAPS's Briony Horgan was quoted in the article.

NASA rover spots something on Mars that doesn't belong there
11-17-2025
Mashable — NASA's Perseverance rover has identified an exotic rock on Mars that may be an iron-nickel meteorite, according to scientists on the mission team. EAPS's Candice Bedford was quoted in the article.

Registration open for Nov. 11 Westwood Lecture on the effects of space weathering: Insights from asteroid Bennu
10-28-2025
Michelle Thompson, associate professor of earth, atmospheric and planetary sciences in the College of Science, will present “A Time Machine to the Early Solar System: Analyzing Samples from Asteroid Bennu Returned by the NASA OSIRIS-REx Mission” from 4:30-5:30 p.m. at Westwood, the Purdue president’s residence.

Which planets are the youngest and oldest in our solar system?
10-13-2025
Live Science — About 4.6 billion years ago, a celestial cloud collapsed, paving the way for our solar system to form. Then, a nebula with strong gravitational pull took shape, kick-starting the birth of the sun. But after that, the details leave more room for debate about which planets formed first. Purdue EAPS's Cauê Borlina was quoted in the article.

Purdue University professor helping discover ancient life on Mars
09-18-2025
WTHR — The Perseverance rover landed in the Jezero Crater in February 2021 to explore the ancient Neretva Vallis River Valley. Last summer, it drilled the Sapphire Canyon sample from a rock called Cheyava Falls. Scientists believe the leopard spots found on it may have been made by ancient life, NASA said. The SuperCam is just one of seven instruments on Perseverance. EAPS's Roger Wiens can operate it from online software right in his Purdue office.

Planetary scientist decodes clues in Bennu’s surface composition to make sense of far-flung asteroids  
08-27-2025
Space weathering expert Michelle Thompson of the College of Science and OSIRIS-REx, NASA’s first asteroid sample return mission, reveals why some gray asteroids reflect light at different wavelengths, like red or blue, more strongly. These results help shed light onto the evolution of rocky bodies in the solar system.

Some asteroids are more ‘colorful’ than others. Here’s why.
08-27-2025
Popular Science — New research on the Bennu asteroid explains why some look red, blue, or grey. EAPS's Michelle Thompson was quoted in the article along with her research.

NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover Spots Bizarre Helmet-Shaped Rock and Mysterious Megaripples
08-25-2025
Scitechdaily — On Mars, the story of the past is preserved in solid rock, but the planet’s present is being shaped in shifting sand. Just last week, NASA’s Perseverance rover studied a set of inactive megaripples to better understand how winds continue to sculpt the Martian surface today. This article was written by Athanasios Klidaras in EAPS.

Asteroid Bennu: A time capsule of materials bearing witness to its origin and transformation over billions of years
08-25-2025
Phys — Asteroid Bennu is a mixture of materials from throughout, and even beyond, our solar system. Over the past few billion years, its unique and varied contents have been transformed by interactions with water and the harsh space environment. EAPS's Michelle Thompson was named in the article along with her research.

Mars boffins probe mysterious new mineral
08-21-2025
The Northern Miner — Scientists have spotted on Mars what could be a previously unknown mineral linked to the kind of sulphaty gunk that clogs tailings ponds on Earth. EAPS's Roger Wiens was mentioned in this article.