Solar System

Mars’ Chryse Planitia region is peppered with small hills topped with craters that might be mud volcanoes.

Martian Mud Probably Looks Like Lava

Muddy water that drains smoothly on Earth leaves a lumpy trail under Mars-like conditions

Jupiter seen in high resolution thermal infrared via the Gemini Observatory's Lucky Imaging technique.

Check Out These New Images of Jupiter’s Stormy Surface

The images allowed scientists to map lightning strikes and revealed holes in the Great Red Spot

A meteorite found in the Sahara Desert, valued at more than $2.5 million.

Christie's Auction House Offers 29-Pound Hunk of Moon for $2.5 Million

The rock crash-landed in the Sahara Desert after a presumed collision chipped it off the lunar surface

Venus' volatile atmosphere expands in the sun, creating a low pressure area that drives strong winds around the planet.

The Forces Behind Venus’ Super-Rotating Atmosphere

Earth’s sister planet spins slowly, but its atmosphere whips around at high speeds

The Unified Geologic Map of the Moon, showing the geology of the Moon’s near side (left) and far side (right).

Gorgeous New Map of the Moon Is Most Detailed to Date

The rendering builds on decades of data that dates back to the Apollo missions, which happened some fifty years ago

An image of the April 2012 Lyrid meteor shower raining down on Earth, taken from the International Space Station.

How To Watch April’s Lyrid Meteor Shower From Home

Though not as plentiful as the Perseids in summer, the Lyrids can serve up some serious fireballs

NASA Names Its Next Mars Rover 'Perseverance'

In an illustrated narrative, Perseverance—scheduled to launch this summer—searches for any signs of past microbial life on Mars

A gray whale "spyhopping" off the coast of Alaska. Gray whales migrate over 12,000 miles along North America's west coast.

How Storms on the Sun Interfere With Whale Migration

The new research gives weight to the hypothesis that gray whales use Earth’s magnetic field to navigate

An image of asteroid 2020 AV2, taken on January 8, 2020 by the Elena robotic unit part of the Virtual Telescope Project

Astronomers Spot First Asteroid Nearer to the Sun Than Venus

Such “intervenusian” rocks are both rare and difficult to detect

Dust-rich outflows of evolved stars similar to the pictured Egg Nebula are plausible sources of the large presolar silicon carbide grains found in meteorites like Murchison.

Meteorite Grains Are the Oldest Known Solid Material on Earth

The oldest dust sample, perhaps 7 billion years old, predates the formation of our planet and the sun

The hypothetical dream spacecraft flies over Uranus and past its rings and moons, too.

Astronomers Prepare a Mission Concept to Explore the Ice Giant Planets

NASA scientists imagined some innovative technologies that could enhance a future mission to Uranus or Neptune

Maat Mons, Venus' highest volcano, one of several that may still be active in present day

Active Volcanoes May Still Exist on Venus

Scientists baked volcanic minerals in a box furnace to model how quickly lava ages on the planet’s harsh surface

The Quadrantids meteor shower, though fleeting, is famous for its especially bright, colorful "fireballs"

How to Catch the Quadrantids, the First Major Meteor Shower of the 2020s

This cosmic light show will peak in the predawn hours of January 4

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

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

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

It’s Death By A Million Cuts on This Slasher Planet!

NASA Celebrates Halloween With These Interstellar Horror Posters

The artwork highlights the weird world of exoplanets where it rains glass and planets circle zombie stars

An artists interpretation of the Yeti Galaxy.

Behold This 'Cosmic Yeti,' a Monster Galaxy From the Beginning of Time

Astronomers recently spotted 12.5 billion-year-old light from the giant galaxy, which helps explains the evolution of the early universe

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

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