Planetary science
Site news
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The astronaut is leading a crew to the International Space Station to advance research and technology for future moon and Mars missions and to improve life on Earth. Watkins studied geological and environmental sciences, now part of the Doerr School of Sustainability’s Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences.
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Recent graduate Emily Paris, PhD ’26, studies Earth’s most extreme deep-sea environments to learn about the habitability of ancient Mars and inform carbon storage efforts.
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Stanford researchers have developed a model that explains how lava-covered worlds close to their stars can retain their atmospheres. The new theory could inform the search for life beyond our solar system.
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Researchers have developed the Smaller Than Earth Habitability Model (STEHM) to assess which planets can maintain life-supporting atmospheres, focusing on size and atmospheric dynamics.
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Emmanuel Codillo recreates geologic processes hundreds of miles beneath Earth’s surface to understand the inner workings of planets, shedding light on magma generation and volcanic activity, earthquakes, and critical mineral deposits.
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Eva Scheller designs and plans spacecraft instruments, including Mars rovers and satellites, and analyzes the data to understand the formation, evolution, and habitability of planetary bodies.
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Attendees identified ways to optimize, integrate, and scale data collection for advancing human and planetary health.
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Schaefer discusses the recent excitement over a detection of possible hints of biological life on planet K2-18b.
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Ermakov combines planetary science and exploration to learn new – and often surprising – details about the structure and evolution of planetary bodies.
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The possibility of detecting a pocket of habitable water under the surface of Europa is just one of the reasons to be excited about NASA's mission, says Dustin Schroeder, an expert in using radar to assess glaciers and a member of Clipper's science team.
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A second-year PhD student in Earth and planetary sciences and bestselling science fiction author, Ashing-Giwa never misses a chance to blend lab and lit.
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A Stanford dune expert discusses watching desert-based movies from the perspective of a geoscientist, the realities of otherworldly dunes, and what his research can tell us about the ancient environment of Earth and other planets.
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Stanford study on microbes in extremely salty water suggests life may survive conditions previously thought to be uninhabitable. The research widens the possibilities for where life may be found throughout our solar system and shows how changes in salinity may affect life in aquatic habitats on Earth.
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Researchers have analyzed the shifting patterns of entire dune fields on Earth and Mars, as seen from orbit, and found they are a direct signature of recent environmental change. This new tool can be applied anywhere with dunes, such as Mars, Titan, and Venus.
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An international team of researchers has used NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to calculate the amount of heat energy coming from the rocky exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 c. The result suggests that the planet’s atmosphere – if it exists at all – is extremely thin.
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Stanford planetary scientists have uncovered how sandy waves form on our sister planet at a scale that previously seemed incompatible with the physics of how ripples and dunes arise on Earth.
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The technique helps us understand ice sheets right here on Earth -- and whether there could be life far, far beyond. (Source: Stanford Engineering)
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A new hypothesis reveals that a global sedimentary cycle driven by seasons could explain the formation of landscapes on Saturn’s moon Titan. The research shows the alien world may be more Earth-like than previously thought.
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Ice-penetrating radar data from Greenland suggests that shallow water pockets may be common within Europa’s ice shell, increasing the potential habitability of the Jovian moon’s ice shell.
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New research shows how the impact that created the Moon’s South Pole–Aitken basin is linked to the stark contrast in composition and appearance between the two sides of the Moon.
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Researchers mimicked these extreme impacts in the lab and discovered new details about how they transform minerals in Earth’s crust. (Source: SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)
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New modeling suggests giant, cool blobs of titanium-rich rocks sinking down to the ancient Moon’s hot core could have produced intermittently strong magnetic fields for the first billion years of the Moon’s history.
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A new model of ancient asteroids bombarding the Earth has been applied to understand how oxygen levels in Earth’s atmosphere evolved.
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A new method for seeing through ice sheets using radio signals from the sun could enable cheap, low-power and widespread monitoring of ice sheet evolution and contribution to sea-level rise.
