The winds of Mars sculpt and shape sand into wave-like dunes. Much of what is known about how sand dunes move around the surface is based on images taken by the HiRISE camera onboard the Mars ...

Sept. 16, 2024, Tucson, Ariz. – A new analysis of maps of the near and far sides of the Moon shows that there are multiple sources of water and hydroxyl in the sunlit rocks and soils, including ...

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 ...

Feb. 14, 2024, Tucson, Ariz. – Stars that pass by our Solar System have altered the long-term orbital evolution of planets, including Earth, and by extension modified our climate. “Perturbations – a ...

April 15, 2024, Tucson, Ariz. – Saturn’s moon Mimas could have grown a huge underground ocean as its orbital eccentricity decreased to its present value and caused its icy shell to melt and thin. “In ...

A mysterious object discovered in the main asteroid belt in 2021 was determined to be a main-belt comet by Planetary Science Institute Senior Scientist Henry Hsieh, Scott Sheppard of the Carnegie ...

Mishal K T was awarded the 2025 Pierazzo International Student Travel Award at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference at The Woodlands, Texas, along with a check for $2,000 from PSI Director and ...

Planetary Science Institute scientists have converged in the lab, trying to decipher the mineral composition of dust. Not just any dust, but rather a simulated sample of Mercury’s surface, created as ...

June 26, 2025, TUCSON, Ariz. – After nearly 20 years of operations, NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, or MRO for short, is on a roll, performing a new maneuver to squeeze even more science out of ...

July 24, 2025, TUCSON, Ariz. – On the slopes of Martian mountains and craters clings what appears to be flowing honey, coated in dust and frozen in time. In reality, these features are incredibly slow ...

Detection and mapping of minerals, vegetation species, chemicals, liquids, and solids is being done through the field of imaging spectroscopy. Imaging spectrometers are deployed on aircraft, ...

NOTICE: This is a statement by Planetary Science Institute CEO Mark V. Sykes, and reflects the values and principles that guide the daily management of and planning for this Institute under his ...