Planets

An artist impression of Cheops, the CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite, with an exoplanet system in the background

Three Things to Know About Europe's New Exoplanet Space Telescope

CHEOPS is the first exoplanet satellite devoted specifically to learning more about the thousands of planets we have already found

After DART smashes into an asteroid, the Hera spacecraft will analyze the impact.

A Spacecraft Will Follow NASA's Asteroid-Smashing Mission to Measure the Effects of the Impact

The European Space Agency's Hera mission will collect data after NASA's DART mission impacts the asteroid Didymos B

Jupiter and its Great Red Spot as seen by the Hubble Telescope on June 27, 2019.

Jupiter's Great Red Spot May Not Be Dying Out Just Yet

Earlier this year, the spot appeared to be losing big chunks, but new research suggests it was gobbling up a smaller storm

First Global Map of Saturn's Moon Titan Reveals Secrets of Earth's 'Deranged' Twin

The map showcases the planet's flat plains, sand dunes, hilly terrain and lakes full of liquid methane

The lonely rover is heading through Gale Crater to dig around for hints of microbial life.

See Mars’s Eerie Horizon in New Images From Curiosity Rover

Gale Crater—where the image was captured—was likely covered with lakes and rivers of liquid water around three billion years ago, scientists suggest

Artist's impression of gas flow in a protoplanetary disk.

To Find Baby Planets, Researchers Chase Waterfalls of Gas

Analysis of data from the ALMA telescope shows gas flows from the surface to middle of protoplanetary discs as new planets form

Illustration of a hot Jupiter planet in the Messier 67 star cluster. Hot Jupiters are so named because of their close proximity — usually just a few million miles — to their star, which drives up temperatures and can puff out the planets.

What Astronomers Can Learn From Hot Jupiters, the Scorching Giant Planets of the Galaxy

Many of the planets that are roughly the size of Jupiter orbit right next to their stars, burning at thousands of degrees

Artist's conception of a watery Venus.

Venus Could Have Been Habitable for Billions of Years

New simulations show the planet could have maintained moderate temperatures and liquid water until 700 million years ago

An artist's illustration of the planet K2-18b and another planet, K2-18c, that orbits closer to the parent star. Both planets orbit a red dwarf about 110 light-years from Earth in the constellation Leo.

Water Vapor Detected in the Atmosphere of an Exoplanet in the Habitable Zone

The planet K2-18b, about 110 light-years away, could have swirling clouds and falling rains of liquid water droplets

A natural color view of Titan and Saturn taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on May 6, 2012, at a distance of approximately 483,000 miles (778,000 kilometers) from Titan.

Dragonfly Spacecraft to Scour the Sands of Titan for the Chemistry of Life

The NASA rotorcraft, resembling a large quadcopter drone, will fly through the orange clouds of the ocean moon in the outer solar system

An artist's depiction of Earth during the Archean Eon, from 4 to 2.5 billion years ago, when life consisted of only single-celled microbes with no nucleus (prokaryotes). How these primitive organisms first formed from chemical reactions remains one of the greatest mysteries of science.

Searching for the Key to Life's Beginnings

From exoplanets to chemical reactions, scientists inch closer to solving the great mystery of how life forms from inanimate matter

First Moon-Forming Disk Detected Swirling Around an Exoplanet

Telescope observations suggest that a cloud of gas and dust around a planet 370 light-years away may be coalescing into planet-sized moons

Dragonfly will explore dozens of locations across the icy moon

NASA’s Dragonfly Mission Will Fly Through the Clouds of Titan, Saturn’s Biggest Moon

Over the course of its initial 2.7-year mission exploring Titan, the dual-quadcopter will fly a combined total of more than 108 miles

Artist's rendering of the planets orbiting PDS 70.

Astronomers Snap a Rare Picture of Two Baby Planets

The Very Large Telescope imaged Planets PDS 70b and PDS 70c about 370 light years away creating a gap in the gas and dust disk around their star

One-Third of Exoplanets Could Be Water Worlds With Oceans Hundreds of Miles Deep

A new statistical analysis suggests seas hundreds of miles deep cover up to 35 percent of distant worlds

The SEIS instrument on the surface of Mars.

NASA Detects First 'Marsquake'

A 2 to 2.5 magnitude quake on the Red Planet is the first seismic activity detected outside the Earth and the Moon

A photographic plate of the 1919 total solar eclipse, taken by Andrew Claude de la Cherois Crommelin and Charles Rundle Davidson during an expedition to Sobral, Brazil. The 1919 eclipse was used by Arthur Eddington, who observed it from the island of Principe off the west coast of Africa, to provide the first experimental evidence of Einstein's theory of relativity.

What the Obsolete Art of Mapping the Skies on Glass Plates Can Still Teach Us

The first pictures of the sky were taken on glass photographic plates, and these treasured artifacts can still help scientists make discoveries today

2007 OR10 is the largest object in our solar system with out a name.

The Largest Unnamed Object in the Solar System Needs a Title—and You Can Help

2007 OR10 needs a snazzier moniker; the public can now choose between ‘Gonggong,’ ‘Holle’ and ‘Vili’

Raging Rivers May Have Washed Over Mars for Billions of Years

A study of 200 river systems shows the waterways persisted even while the atmosphere was disappearing and the Red Planet was drying up

The most recent vortex on the left and the first one discovered in 1989 by Voyager 2.

There's a Dark and Stormy Vortex Brewing on Neptune

It is the sixth massive dark and stormy vortex found on the planet since 1989 and the only one astronomers have watched develop

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