Solar System

Comet Lovejoy (C/2014 Q2) on 12 February 2015

Comet Lovejoy is One Boozy Space Rock

The greenish comet that lit up the sky last January releases as much alcohol as 500 bottles of wine every second during its peak

An artist’s rendering shows a white dwarf star shredding a rocky asteroid.

Dead Star Shredding a Rocky Body Offers a Preview of Earth's Fate

The stellar corpse spotted by a NASA telescope backs up a theory that white dwarf stars eat planetary remnants

A color composite image highlighting pluto's brilliant diversity of color and texture. The western lobe of the heart—an area rich with nitrogen, carbon monoxide and methane ice—is brightly displayed in the right of the image.

First Official Data From the Pluto Flyby Reshapes the Dwarf Planet’s History

“The ‘little spacecraft that could’ is making a lot of big discoveries,” says Alan Stern

An artist's interpretation of what ancient Mars may have looked like

The Past and Present of Mars Look Wetter and Wetter

From salty streaks of flowing water to an ancient system of rivers and lakes, Mars seems more hospitable to life than previously thought

How to Build a Seven-Mile-Wide Scale Model of the Solar System

It takes three-and-a-half miles to get from the Sun to Pluto

A mosaic of high-resolution images of Pluto shows the icy plane informally called Sputnik Planum.

Detailed Pluto Photos Reveal Dunes, Melted Plains and More

“If an artist had painted this Pluto before our flyby, I probably would have called it over the top — but that’s what is actually there.”

An aurora glows near Australia in a photo taken from the International Space Station. Auroras are products of charged particles from the sun interacting with Earth's magnetic field.

Earth’s Magnetic Field Is at Least Four Billion Years Old

Tiny grains of Australian zircon hold evidence that our magnetic shielding was active very soon after the planet formed

New Horizons snapped this parting shot of Pluto on July 15, 2015.

New Horizons Snaps a Final Shot of Pluto

So long, dwarf planet!

Turns out Pluto is covered in ice mountains up to 11,000 feet high.

Behold, the First Closeup Pictures From the Pluto Flyby Are Here

From fresh-faced moons to ice mountains, these are the visual surprises that hit the ground the day after the Pluto flyby

Exaggerating the colors on Pluto and Charon helps mission scientists see distinct terrains on each icy world.

Where Will the New Horizons Probe Go After Pluto?

The historic flyby may be over, but the spacecraft should still go on to study even smaller bodies on its path through the Kuiper belt

Pluto as seen by New Horizons on July 13, when the spacecraft was about 476,000 miles from the surface.

The New Horizons Probe Has Made Its Closest Approach to Pluto

Mission scientists have received the confirmation signal that the pre-programmed event went as planned and the craft is healthy

A color image of Pluto and its moon Charon captured on July 11, 2015 by New Horizons

New Horizons Probe Reveals That Pluto is Bigger Than Expected

But so far it still won’t be considered a "planet"

Hello, Pluto! We <3 you, too.

Pluto Probe Finds Surprises Ahead of Its Close Encounter

From dark poles to weird "whales", New Horizons is giving us a taste of the historic science we can expect from its visit to Pluto

What Did Insects Evolve From and More Questions From Our Readers

You asked, we answered

This artist's rendering shows New Horizons encountering Pluto and its largest moon, Charon.

Seven Surprises From the First Flybys of Each Planet in the Solar System

As the New Horizons probe approaches Pluto, find out what wonders were uncovered by the first spacecraft to zip past other worlds

Colorized radar images from the Cassini spacecraft show some of the many lakes on Titan

Lakes on Saturn’s Moon are Really Sinkholes Filled With Liquid Methane and Ethane

Strange and changeable lakes might form just as certain water-filled lakes do on Earth

Scientist know that Venus' surface, depicted here based on radar data, was shaped by volcanoes, and a new study suggests they may still be active.

Venus (Probably) Has Active Volcanoes

And they’re (probably) erupting!

A mosaic image shows magnetic activity on the solar disk, which is surrounded by the relatively faint corona.

A "Mangrove Forest" of Magnetism May Help Heat the Sun's Corona

New simulations might explain why the sun's atmosphere is bizarrely millions of degrees hotter than its surface

An artist's rendering of the Pluto system seen from the surface of one of its moons.

Weird Orbital Behaviors Offer Clues to the Origins of Pluto's Moons

Solving the mystery of these satellites could help astronomers understand "Tatooine" exoplanets that orbit binary stars

The dark gray object lurking above the Herschel crater on Mars is the Martian moon Phobos, as seen by the Viking Orbiter 1 in 1977

Did Mars Steal its Moons From the Asteroid Belt?

Scientists still aren’t sure where the odd little moons came from, but they have ideas

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