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Planetary Science
Data from the Zhurong rover suggests the Red Planet was wet more recently than we thought.
The high pitches from the flute and the harp would reach your ears before the notes from the tuba and the cello.
We have long thought that Pluto was completely frozen solid, but the discovery of cryovolcanoes challenges that assumption.
Europa may be difficult to access. But if a recent study is correct, its subsurface ocean would be more accessible than previously thought.
Was there ever life on Mars? Is there life on Mars now? Did it originate there or here, on Earth? All possibilities are fascinating.
Volcanic activity caused the end-Triassic mass extinction 200 million years ago. The dinosaurs survived and rose to dominance.
Ancient helium-3 from the dawn of time leaks from the Earth, offering clues to our planet’s formation. A key question is where it leaks from.
The story of how Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune were made isn't a universal one. Some gas giants were built different.
Due to a crust of carbon, the absence of oxygen, and constant bombardment from meteorites, the planet Mercury may be littered with diamonds.
Knowing that technology would advance in the future, NASA put some moon rock samples into storage without opening them. Now, they have.
Our research on a Martian meteorite provides new clues about early surface conditions on the red planet.
Please stop calling our Sun an "average star." It is philosophically dubious and astronomically incorrect.
Shooting star or piece of space dust?
In 1990, we only knew of the ones in our Solar System. Today, we know of thousands, and that's just the tip of the iceberg.
The search for worlds outside our solar system has just turned up a planet, TOI-2257 b, with a truly extreme orbit.
Water on Mars is key for human survival on the Red Planet, not just for drinking but for growing food and making fuel and oxygen.
The boiling new world, which zips around its star at ultraclose range, is among the lightest exoplanets found to date.
A newly discovered “ultrahot Jupiter” has the shortest orbit of any known gas giant.
Every December, the Geminid meteor shower reaches its peak. Its 2021 show will be spectacular, but only if you do it right.
Purely physical and chemical processes can deceive us into thinking that life is present, when it actually is not.
Finding out we're not alone in the Universe would fundamentally change everything. Here's how we could do it.
How the search for alien life is taking place right here in our own Solar System. If you want to understand the origin of life in the Universe, you have three […]
Theoretically, we know what happened on the red planet. Here’s how we’ll find out whether we’re right. When it comes to the worlds beyond Earth in our Solar System, it’s only […]
And the one step we can take to show extraterrestrials we’re figuring it out. Every year, Earth’s meteor showers accomplish two important tasks. This composite photograph shows a large number of […]
It peaks the nights of August 11–13, but it’s no longer the year’s most reliable meteor shower. Every year, beginning in mid-July, planet Earth commences passing through an enormous debris […]
At 35 light-years away, it’s also the 2nd coolest, 2nd widest planet ever found. Despite discovering more than 4000 exoplanets, most remain obscure. Although more than 4,000 confirmed exoplanets are known, […]
The largest moon in our Solar System, often overlooked, is a water-rich world. Does that mean life? Here on Earth, life took hold very early on in our planet’s history, and […]
With sodium-sensitive eyes, we’d see it every new Moon. With no detectable gases, the Moon appears to be atmosphere-free. The Moon as seen from a view above the majority of Earth’s […]
Planets are either rocky, like Earth, or gas-rich, like Neptune, with no in-between. What are the different types of planets that exist in the Universe? If all you could see […]
Whether they’re gas giants or rocky planets makes all the difference for life. Over the past 30 years, we went from not knowing if there were planets like ours around other […]