News + Impact - MIT EAPS

Rendering shows the Perseverance on the rocky brown surface of Mars. The Perseverance resembles a go-cart and has 6 wheels and an arm extending that houses the drill. The top of the Perseverance has a long neck and a camera on top.

PNAS Special Feature – The Scientific Value of Mars Sample Return

January 7, 2025

Categories: In the Media, Planets

Illustration of the James Webb Space Telescope shining light on a population of small asteroids.

MIT astronomers find the smallest asteroids ever detected in the main belt

December 9, 2024

Categories: Planets, Research

Swirling black hole with light bursting from middle, and planets and asteroids around it.

Asteroid grains shed light on the outer solar system’s origins

November 6, 2024

Categories: Planets, Research

Cover of the journal Nature with microscopic view of L chondrite minerals.

EAPS researchers uncover meteorite origins, in Nature

October 17, 2024

Categories: In the Media, Planets, Research

Photo illustration of a spacecraft with large solar panels hovering over a reddish striped moon with planet Jupiter in the background.

Q&A: How the Europa Clipper will set cameras on a distant icy moon

October 15, 2024

Categories: Planets, Research

A four-panel image. The top two panels are diagrams of Uranus – spheres with gridlines going longitudinally and latitudinally. On the top left, the view from Hubble, the southern pole of the planet faces 3 o’clock. On the top right, the view from New Horizons, the southern pole faces 10 o'clock. The bottom left panel is Hubble's actual view of Uranus – the planet is a light blue sphere, with a white circle covering the right half of the planet (the southern pole). The bottom right panel is the actual view of Uranus from New Horizons. The planet appears as a tiny whiteish dot.

New views of Uranus provide new perspective on the search for exoplanets

October 9, 2024

Categories: In the Media, Planets, Research, Students + Postdocs

Nicole Xike Nie awarded 2025 Nier Prize

October 02, 2024

Categories: Awards + Promotions, Community, Faculty, Planets

Mars’ missing atmosphere could be hiding in plain sight

September 25, 2024

Categories: Faculty, Landscapes + Planetary Interiors, Planets, Research

Jared Bryan: bridging the heavens and Earth through seismology

September 17, 2024

Categories: Planets, Profile, Students + Postdocs

a picture of the star AB Aurigae; it has a spiraling blue center with a red ring surrounding it.

3 Questions: Evidence for planetary formation through gravitational instability

September 4, 2024

Categories: Faculty, Planets, Research

Photo shows the rover’s long arm and the rocky brown Martian soil.

Study: Rocks from Mars’ Jezero Crater, which likely predate life on Earth, contain signs of water

August 14, 2024

Categories: Landscapes + Planetary Interiors, Planets, Research

Moon dust falls through the hands of an astronaut.

Scientists pin down the origins of the moon’s tenuous atmosphere

August 2, 2024

Categories: Faculty, Planets, Research

Alt text: The James Webb Space Telescope points to several TRAPPIST planets scattered on top of a map background with a red dotted line leading around them.

Roadmap details how to improve exoplanet exploration using the JWST

July 15, 2024

Categories: Faculty, Planets, Research

The surface of Titan, containing lake-shaped crevices.

Study: Titan’s lakes may be shaped by waves

June 19, 2024

Categories: Landscapes + Planetary Interiors, Planets, Research

Side-by-side headshots of Nancy Kanwisher, Robert Langer, and Sara Seager.

Sara Seager one of three MIT scientists named Kavli Prize Laureates

June 12, 2024

Categories: Awards + Promotions, Faculty, Planets

Julien de Wit talks “puffy Jupiters” and new exoplanet questions with NBC Boston

May 30, 2024

Categories: Faculty, In the Media, Planets

A night-time photo shows a white, cylindrical observatory with the roof open part-way, in a rural landscape. The sky is full of the Milky Way and stars.

Newly discovered Earth-sized planet may lack an atmosphere

May 15, 2024

Categories: Planets, Research

A large bright yellow star is in the top left. On bottom right, a planet in blue and purple moves quickly, and whisps of clouds trail it.

Astronomers spot a giant planet that is as light as cotton candy

May 14, 2024

Categories: Planets, Research

Geologists discover rocks with the oldest evidence yet of Earth’s magnetic field

April 24, 2024

Categories: Faculty, Landscapes + Planetary Interiors, Planets, Research

Venus in space with multi-colored amino acid molecules in its atmosphere.

Study: Life’s building blocks are surprisingly stable in Venus-like conditions

March 20, 2024

Categories: Faculty, Life + Environments, Planets, Research