Science AI Journal
Physics and Astronomy · Research topic

Open research questions in Planetary Science and Exploration

217 unresolved questions extracted from the limitations and future-work sections of 1,760 Planetary Science and Exploration papers in our library. Each links back to the study that raised it.

What the literature leaves open

  • further evaluation of the TPMs using additional data sources, - investigation of the effects of surface roughness on the thermal infrared signal, - development of more accurate thermophysical models of the lunar surface

    Vicarious Calibration of Thermal Infrared Imagers Using Thermophysical Models of the Lunar Surface · 2026 · DOI

  • Lack of robust calibration and validation methodologies at high brightness temperatures. Uncertainties in surface properties, particularly in the mid-wave infrared. Need for a stable and widely available reference target for vicarious calibration.

    Vicarious Calibration of Thermal Infrared Imagers Using Thermophysical Models of the Lunar Surface · 2026 · DOI

  • The origin and alteration history of the Margin unit are not well understood. The potential for preserving biosignatures in the Margin unit is of great interest but requires further research.

    Lake- and groundwater-associated alteration of the olivine-rich Margin unit in Jezero crater, Mars · 2026 · DOI

  • The mid-to-late-stage evolution of the lunar magnetic field is poorly constrained, and thus, the existence of a long-lived lunar dynamo remains controversial.

    Persistent but weak magnetic field at the Moon’s midstage revealed by Chang’e-5 basalt · 2025 · DOI

  • The origin of these molecules remains uncertain, as they could be derived from either abiotic or biological sources.

    Long-chain alkanes preserved in a Martian mudstone · 2025 · DOI

  • However, the ocean hypothesis remains controversial due to the lack of conclusive evidence from the Martian subsurface.

    Ancient ocean coastal deposits imaged on Mars · 2025 · DOI

  • However, the ability to detect all possible craters under different lighting and camera geometries has not been systematically studied except in a few limited cases.

    Crater Detection Dependence on Resolution, Incidence Angle, Emission Angle, and Phase Angle · 2025 · DOI

  • This study explores an underexplored process: the role of seasonal frost in brine formation.

    Perchlorate brine formation from frost at the Viking 2 landing site · 2025 · DOI

  • However, the extent to which both the current and primitive geodynamo influence the transport of terrestrial ions still remains unclear, and this uncertainty is further complicated by the enigmatic composition and poorly constrained location of the Eoarchean exosphere.

    Terrestrial atmospheric ion implantation occurred in the nearside lunar regolith during the history of Earth’s dynamo · 2025 · DOI

  • However, the precision of existing geochronology is insufficient to determine whether this peak represents a brief event or a more protracted period of magmatism occurring over tens of millions of years.

    High-precision U-Pb zircon dating identifies a major magmatic event on the Moon at 4.338 Ga · 2024 · DOI

  • The existence of molecular H 2 O and evolution of solar wind–derived water on the lunar surface remain controversial.

    Multiple sources of water preserved in impact glasses from Chang’e-5 lunar soil · 2024 · DOI

  • Abstract Although a low temperature limit for life has not been established, it is thought that there exists a physical limit imposed by the onset of intracellular vitrification, typically occurring at ~−20 °C for unicellular organisms.

    Preservation of Bacillus subtilis’ cellular liquid state at deep sub-zero temperatures in perchlorate brines · 2024 · DOI

  • Although we understand how helium is delivered to the Moon, certain aspects of helium concentration processes on the surface remain unknown, such as why impact-generated glass aggregates contain more helium than equally sized soil grains of other types.

    Helium reservoirs in iron nanoparticles on the lunar surface · 2024 · DOI

  • The sublimation of CO2 has been proposed as an alternative driver for sediment transport, but how this mechanism works remains unknown.

    How, when and where current mass flows in Martian gullies are driven by CO2 sublimation · 2024 · DOI

  • Future research should focus on investigating the effects of impact events on the environment and the biosphere. The study of impactites and shock-metamorphic features should continue to provide reliable evidence of impact origin.

    The Geology of Hypervelocity Collisions · 2026 · DOI

  • The paper identifies a gap in our understanding of the global inventory and uneven distribution of confirmed terrestrial impact structures. The study highlights the need to consider the potential effects of impact events on the environment and the biosphere.

    The Geology of Hypervelocity Collisions · 2026 · DOI

  • Limited spatial resolution and fine-scale regolith heterogeneity produce mixed pixels with spectra that combine multiple materials. Nonlinear scattering effects and limited ground truth pose major challenges for hyperspectral unmixing of lunar intimate mixtures.

    A Hapke Physics-Guided Deep Autoencoder for Lunar Hyperspectral Unmixing · 2026 · DOI

  • Craters of varying sizes and morphological characteristics. Limited performance of traditional computer vision methods. Inadequate ability of some deep learning models to identify large craters.

    Deep learning framework for crater detection and identification on the Moon and Mars · 2026 · DOI

  • The performance of the CNN model is limited for large craters. The ResNet-50 model has inadequate ability to identify large craters. The dataset used is from NASA's publicly accessible archives, which may have limitations.

    Deep learning framework for crater detection and identification on the Moon and Mars · 2026 · DOI

  • Future research should focus on further exploring the lunar interior and the formation of the low-viscosity zone. The development of new technologies for exploring the lunar interior is needed.

    Reactive formation of magnesiowüstite at the lunar core-mantle boundary · 2026 · DOI

  • The ill-posed problem of monocular terrain reconstruction, characterized by solution ambiguity and ill-posedness. The inherent ambiguity in the physical imaging process, where the observed pixel intensity stems from the tightly coupled effects of intrinsic surface reflectance and illumination geometry. The lack of ground-truth Martian surface albedo data at HiRISE resolution.

    PFMGAN: A Generative Adversarial Network with Physics Fusion for DTM Generation from Martian Monocular Images · 2026 · DOI

  • The simplified Lambertian model is insufficient to accurately capture the complex optical phenomena on the Martian surface, - Conventional deep learning approaches often struggle to derive robust solutions amidst inherent ambiguity, - The lack of ground-truth Martian surface albedo data at HiRISE resolution

    PFMGAN: A Generative Adversarial Network with Physics Fusion for DTM Generation from Martian Monocular Images · 2026 · DOI

  • The duration and dynamic evolution of surface water on Mars are key to understanding its past habitability, but remain poorly constrained. Prior work has preserved mineralogical signatures of ancient aqueous activity, but these remain chronologically unconstrained.

    Manganese (Hydr)oxides record the dynamic evolution of a million-year Hesperian Ocean in Utopia Planitia, Mars · 2026 · DOI

  • Future research should focus on the in-flight calibration of HVM^3 - Future research should investigate the use of HVM^3 to map water ice or other volatiles within most of the Moon's Permanently Shadowed Regions

    Calibration and Performance of the High Resolution Volatiles and Minerals Moon Mapper (HVM 3 ) on Lunar Trailblazer · 2026 · DOI

  • There is a need to understand the form, abundance, and distribution of water on the lunar surface - There is a need to measure the distinct absorptions of water ice, adsorbed O, and OH/hydroxl

    Calibration and Performance of the High Resolution Volatiles and Minerals Moon Mapper (HVM 3 ) on Lunar Trailblazer · 2026 · DOI

Most-cited papers in Planetary Science and Exploration

Most recent work

Find a gap in your own Planetary Science and Exploration sub-topic

This page shows what the Planetary Science and Exploration literature already flags as unresolved. To narrow it to your specific question, search the Research Gap Finder: the search is free with a free account and lists the papers closest to your topic first. Unlocking that topic (50 credits, charged once) fills the comparison table from our 4.5M-paper local library and writes the gaps from its rows.

Open the Research Gap Finder →

Related topics in Physics and Astronomy

Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
675 open questions
Cosmology and Gravitation Theories
639 open questions
Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
547 open questions
Model Reduction and Neural Networks
436 open questions
Black Holes and Theoretical Physics
361 open questions
Quantum Mechanics and Applications
324 open questions
Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research
312 open questions
Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies
308 open questions
217 open questions have been extracted from the limitations and future-work passages of 1,760 Planetary Science and Exploration papers in our 4.5M-paper local library. Each one below links back to the study that raised it, so you can read the original claim in context.

Tools for your next paper

Gaps & Literature SearchFind open questions in any field — 120,000+ open gaps mined from our own library.Pre-CheckIs your paper ready? A Tier 1–5 acceptance probability in seconds.Journal FinderA ranked shortlist of target journals from a 17,500-venue index.Duplicate Publication CheckerCheck prior-publication & salami-slicing risk across 8 sources.Citation GeneratorFreeA DOI or title → APA, MLA, Vancouver, Chicago, BibTeX, RIS. No signup.Graphical Abstract MakerFreeTurn your findings into a colorblind-safe graphical abstract.

Compare the category — Honest roundups of the AI research tools, ours listed alongside the alternatives.

Command palette

Jump anywhere, run any action.