A new study of Jupiter's moon Io, the most volcanically active world in the solar system, reveals that its volcanoes aren't concentrated where models predict they should be.
Titan may look a lot younger than it really is because its craters are getting erased, according to the first quantitative estimate of how much Titan's weather affects the surface.
The Mercury Laser Altimeter on NASA's MESSENGER mission provided one of three new lines of evidence that water ice exists near the north pole of Mercury.
The Planetary Geodynamics Laboratory carries out research on the structure, dynamics, and evolution of the solid Earth, moon, and planets using in-situ and remote-sensing data. Relevant data types include imagery, geodetic information derived from spacecraft tracking and space geodetic networks, gravity, topography, and magnetic field information.
Laboratory research is built around mission support, measurements, and modeling. It works toward improved understanding of the dynamics of the solar system, how and why Earth is similar to -- and different from -- other planetary bodies, and the current and likely future state of the Earth, especially regarding hazards to humans.
Processes currently being studied at the Laboratory include impact cratering, volcanism, seismicity, mass redistribution (including ice mass change), sea level change, rotational variations, spin-orbit coupling, and core dynamo generation of magnetic fields.
