Planets

As more countries and companies send spacecraft to other worlds, scientists are worried about potential contamination risks. Here, NASA's Curiosity rover takes a self-portrait on Mars.

Can We Save Mars From Ourselves?

When we travel to Earth-like worlds, contamination may be inevitable

Think Curiosity is cool? You ain't seen nothing yet.

How the Next Generation of Mars Rovers will Search for Signs of Life

The Mars 2020 rover doesn’t even have a name yet—but it already has an ambitious goal

An artist's impression of Proxima b

Astronomers Have Discovered an Earth-Sized Exoplanet in Our Cosmic Backyard

But what would potential life look like on this planetary neighbor?

Murray Buttes may look like an earthbound mesa, but there's a difference: It's on Mars.

Here's a Panoramic Glimpse of the Curiosity Rover's Next Destination

Welcome to Murray Buttes. You are now free to rove about the landscape

Grab your sunglasses—all of those far-off stars, black holes and celestial bodies contribute to your killer tan.

Part of Your Suntan Comes From Photons That Are Billions of Years Old

Thank bodies from beyond the galaxy for a bit of that golden glow

Maria Zuber, first woman to run a NASA spacecraft mission, says she has a "genetic predilection" to explore space.

This Scientist Seeks Out the Secret History of Other Worlds

Maria Zuber has spent her career enabling discoveries beyond Earth. She says the best is yet to come

This artist's conception shows a dim red dwarf surrounded by three planets. To hold life at their surface, red dwarf planets must orbit close to their star, putting them in the line of fire from dangerous flares.

Why the Universe Is Becoming More Habitable

The universe is far more welcoming to life today than it was when microbes on Earth arose—and will only grow more so

An artist's impression of a planet forming through accretion.

To Uncover Earth’s Origins, Scientists Must Look Beyond It

Missions to study the other planetary bodies in our solar system could help solve the mystery of how our own came to be.

A false-color image of the Great Red Spot of Jupiter from Voyager 1. The white oval storm directly below the Great Red Spot has approximately the same diameter as the Earth.

Jupiter’s Great Red Spot Is Also Red Hot

The giant storm pipes out temperatures over 2,400 degrees Fahrenheit

An artist's conception of four of the new planets, orbiting a single dwarf star. These small, rocky worlds are far closer to their star than Mercury is to our sun, but the star is smaller and cooler than our own.

Kepler Just Found 104 New Planets Outside of Our Solar System

Is anyone home?

This spectacular image of the Orion Nebula star-formation region was obtained from multiple exposures using the HAWK-I infrared camera on ESO’s Very Large Telescope in Chile.

Breathtaking New Images Capture Failed Stars and Planet-Sized Objects Inside the Orion Nebula

It’s the deepest look into the nebula ever seen before

An artist's concept of a moon-sized body slamming into a Mercury-sized world in another solar system. High speed collisions like this were more likely to occur in systems with gas giants, but they took place early in a planet's life, allowing time for the world to recover. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)

How a Young Jupiter Acted as Both Protector and Destroyer

Like a boisterous older sibling, the gas giant both beat up and protected young Earth

An artist's rendition of Juno in orbit around Jupiter. The craft is powered entirely by the sun's rays.

It's Official: We Are Now in Orbit Around Jupiter

After a nerve-wracking entry, NASA spacecraft Juno successfully entered the gas giant's orbit

Meet Three of Earth's Tiny Celestial Buddies

A handful of quasi-satellites, mini-moons and Trojan asteroids tag along with Earth as it whizzes around the sun

This concept drawing shows Juno in orbit around the solar system's largest planet.

Here’s What Will Happen When Juno Gets to Jupiter

It all goes down July 4

In this artist's conception, a carbon planet orbits a sunlike star in the early universe.

Diamond Planets Might Have Hosted Earliest Life

A new study pushes back the earliest date that extraterrestrial life might, maybe, could appear; if so, it'd be on planets made of diamond

Artist's impression of the simultaneous stellar eclipse and planetary transit events on Kepler-1647. Such a double eclipse event is known as a syzygy.

This Jupiter-Sized Planet Is the Largest Found Orbiting Two Suns

Any orbiting moons could be habitable—but scientists have yet to spot them

This artist's concept depicts select planetary discoveries made to date by NASA's Kepler space telescope.

How Would You React If We Discovered Alien Life?

Experts weigh in on what the detection of other life forms might mean to the human race

Why Do Humans Have Canine Teeth and More Questions From Our Readers

You asked, we answered

Mercury’s northern volcanic plains shown in enhanced color to emphasize rocks types. The bottom left portion of the image displays large wrinkle ridges, formed during lava cooling. Near the top of the image, a bright orange region shows the location of a volcanic vent.

See Mercury's Landscape in Stunning Detail

A new map of the planet's surface captures the depths of craters and the peaks of volcanic mountains

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