GD
Geodynamics

Peculiar Planets

On the way back to Mercury

and November 18, 2020
On the way back to Mercury
Artist impression of BepiColombo approaching Mercury (Credit: ESA/ATG for spacecraft, NASA/JPL for Mercury)

It is the smallest planet of the Solar System, the closest to the Sun and the quickest at orbiting around it, the one with the least inclined and most elongated orbit, the only one where a day lasts two-thirds of a full year, the one with the highest bulk density. Mercury is a planet of extremes, but rarely visited by space missions (compared to Mars, Venus and the Moon). This week Dr. Nicola Tosi ...[Read More]

Venus: science! Today!

September 23, 2020
Venus: science! Today!
Peculiar Planets - Venus edition. Image credit: Shutterstock.com

After many (attempted) visits to Venus in an earlier era of space exploration, the focus of terrestrial planet science was shifted towards e.g. our other neighbour Mars. Yet, lately, Venus seems to gain scientific popularity and not without reason – there remains so much to figure out about the puzzling planet. The virtual mini-workshop ‘Venus Science Today’ was held a few weeks ago to bring toget ...[Read More]

The two faces of Mars

September 9, 2020
The two faces of Mars
Credit: ESA & MPS for OSIRIS Team, MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/RSSD/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

In this week’s blog post, we will learn more about the past of our neighbouring planet Mars. Kar Wai Cheng, PhD student at the Institute of Geophysics at ETH Zurich, is talking about the Martian dichotomy and how it could have formed. Humans have recognized Mars for a very long time. One of the earliest records of Mars is seen on a skymap in the tomb of an ancient Egyptian astronomer. By tha ...[Read More]

What happens when two worlds collide?

September 2, 2020
What happens when two worlds collide?
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Why does the Moon have a very small core and Mercury one that makes up roughly 85% of the planet’s radius? Why are humans doing research in geoscience and not some evolved version of dinosaurs? In this week’s blog post, Harry Ballantyne, PhD student at the Department of Space and Planetary Sciences at the University of Bern, is talking about large-scale collisions and how they can answ ...[Read More]