Models of Neptune’s moon Triton reveal curious behavior in how tidal forces and mass anomalies cause the poles to reorient their location.
planetary interiors
Close Encounter with Jupiter
First results from the Juno mission shed new light on Jupiter’s atmosphere, gravity, magnetic field, aurora, history, and more.
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.
Veronique Dehant Receives 2016 Charles A. Whitten Medal
Veronique Dehant was awarded the 2016 Charles A. Whitten Medal at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting Honors Ceremony, held on 14 December 2016 in San Francisco, Calif. The medal is for "outstanding achievement in research on the form and dynamics of the Earth and planets."
Freezing Mars's Core—in the Lab
Mars's core, widely thought to be at least partially molten, may eventually solidify completely, and researchers have turned to lab experiments to find out how.
Lau and O'Rourke Receive 2016 Study of the Earth's Deep Interior Focus Group Graduate Research Award
Harriet Lau and Joseph O'Rourke will receive the 2016 Study of the Earth's Deep Interior Focus Group Graduate Research Award at the 2016 American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, to be held 12–16 December in San Francisco, Calif. This award is given annually for advances that contribute to the understanding of the deep interior of the Earth or other planetary bodies using a broad range of observational, experimental, and/or theoretical approaches.
Delayed Launch Approved for Next Mars Mission
NASA has set a new 2018 launch date for a spacecraft to probe the Red Planet's interior, after instrument failure hobbled preparations for the mission.
Juno Spacecraft Nails Its Orbit Around Jupiter
The mission will spend 20 months collecting data on the planet's core, its magnetic field, and the composition of its atmosphere.
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.
Interior Water Not Ruled Out for Our Moon, Lab Tests Suggest
The experiments mimicked cooling of magma at the lunar surface. They found that any water in interior molten rock might have escaped so fast at the surface that none was left to be measured.