A view of Mercury’s north polar chaotic terrain (Borealis Chaos) and the Raditladi and Eminescu craters where evidence of possible glaciers has been identified. Credit: NASA. Scientists from the ...

Below you will find a text describing the basic principles behind the Planetary Science Institute system of utilizing crater counts and isochron diagrams in order to estimate crater retention ages of ...

At 7:17 AM on the morning of June 30, 1908, a mysterious explosion occurred in the skies over Siberia. It was caused by the impact and breakup of a large meteorite, at an altitude roughly six ...

The Planetary Science Institute (PSI) proudly announces the Betty Pierazzo International Student Travel Award, in honor of our late Senior Scientist. This award is designed to inspire graduate ...

Shatter cones are distinctive cone or fan-shaped features in rocks, with radiating fracture lines that resemble a horsetail. They are found in only two places on Earth, 1) in nuclear test sites and 2) ...

This image shows eroded channels near the Martian poles filled with bright frozen carbon dioxide, in contrast to the muted red of the underlying ground. In the summer ...

PSI’s role: Two PSI senior scientists, Dr. William K. Hartmann and Dr. Donald R. Davis, were the first to suggest the leading modern hypothesis of the moon’s origin, in a paper published in 1975 in ...

Top: Black and white image of the Moon from Moon Mineralogy Mapper data. Bottom: Map of water on the Moon. The different colors represent different shapes to the water absorption and correlate with ...

Oct. 28, 2024, TUCSON, Ariz. – The Moon and Mars are pocked with giant impact craters acquired very long ago, while there appears to be a dearth of them on Earth and Venus. Time may have healed many ...

When NASA’s Viking 1 lander touched down on the surface of Mars nearly 50 years ago, its cameras imaged a boulder-strewn surface of elusive origin. New research led by Planetary Science Institute ...

The Planetary Science Institute is a private, nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporation dedicated to Solar System exploration. It is headquartered in Tucson, Arizona, where it was founded in 1972. PSI ...

Lava tubes are high priority targets for in situ exploration of Mars, with the potential to provide access to subsurface cavities that could facilitate scientific studies of the Martian subsurface as ...