Planets

Is Jupiter the "Star" in Lord Byron's Famous Poem?

According to astronomer Donald Olson, the brilliant star described in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage is actually a planet

Auroras on Uranus caused by changes in its magnetosphere

Magnetic Field Around Uranus Are a Chaotic Mess

Using data from the Voyager 2 mission, researchers have modeled Uranus's off-kilter magnetosphere

Kepler Finds 219 New Planets

NASA released the final catalog from its planet-hunting telescope, bringing its total up to 4,034 potential planets

Jupiter Could Be the Solar System's Oldest Resident

The early former may have set up just the right conditions for Earth to take shape

The star KELT-9 and its hellish planet KELT-9b

Researchers Discover a Planet That's As Hot As a Star

It's daytime temperatures clock in at a scorching 7,800 degrees Fahrenheit

Jupiter's South Pole is a cluster of dramatic storms.

New Views of Jupiter Offer Up Marvel and Mystery

From stunning polar images to weird aurorae, the gas giant is even weirder than we thought

Looking toward the sunlit side of Saturn's rings, Cassini captured this image in violet light on Oct. 28, 2016.

Cassini Survives Its Daredevil Plunge Toward Saturn

The craft’s first date with the “big empty” went off without a hitch

NASA's Cassini spacecraft captures three of Saturn's moons—Tethys, Enceladus and Mimas—in this group photo.

How and When Did Saturn Get Those Magnificent Rings?

The planet's rings are coy when it comes to revealing their age, but astronomers are getting closer

Raw image of the storm on Saturn's north pole

Cassini Sends Back First Images From Its Saturn Dives

The stream of raw images include new pictures of the strange hexagonal storm swirling around its north pole

An artist's rendering imagines what Cassini must have looked like as it headed on the first of a series of orbits between Saturn and its rings.

Cassini Makes a Daring Dive

The spacecraft is out of contact as it begins a series of dramatic orbits between Saturn and its rings

What's the Difference Between Horns and Antlers and More Questions From Our Readers

You asked, we answered

An illustration of LHS 1140b orbiting its faint red star

Exoplanet Discovery Arrives in Time for New Telescope Technology

Astronomers call LHS 1140b one of the "best targets" for hunting liquid water with NASA's James Webb Space Telescope

Artist's rendering of what DeeDee may look like

Meet DeeDee, the Solar System's Newest Dwarf Planet (Maybe)

Though the tiny icy orb meets all the criteria, it has yet to receive the official designation

This snapshot shows Jupiter's swirling, banded atmosphere and signature vortices.

“Great Cold Spot” Discovered on Jupiter

The ancient storm was hiding in plain sight

Uranus and its aurora

Take a Peek at the Auroras on Uranus

This composite image gives the best view yet of the seventh planet's atmospheric lights and ring

This snapshot shows Jupiter's swirling, banded atmosphere and signature vortices.

Hubble Snags Splendid Snapshot of Jupiter

The perfect photographic conditions make for a grand view of the gas giant

The view from GJ 1132b

Atmosphere Detected Around an Earth(ish)-Sized Planet

Just 39 light years away, GJ 1132b is 1.4 times the Earth's radius and has an atmosphere that may be composed of steam or methane

The latest iteration of the four-legged LEMUR exploration robot clings to a test rock surface in Aaron Parness’ lab in a recent test of its microspine capabilities.

A New Generation of Interplanetary Rovers Is Crawling Toward the Stars

These four-legged, wheel-less robots will explore asteroids and the frigid outer worlds of our Solar System

What a ring around Mars may have looked like

Mars May Have Had a Ring in the Past and Could Have One in the Future

The red planet's moon may have broken apart into a ring of debris and reformed several times over the planet's history

Shortly after the announcement of the TRAPPIST-1 system, NASA crowdsourced its Twitter followers for possible planet names. The actual process of naming new planets, however, is a bit more involved.

How Do New Planets Get Their Names?

Sorry, Planet McPlanetface: Asteroids, moons and other celestial bodies go through a strict set of international naming guidelines

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