Solar System News

July 10, 2016

Dawn Maps Ceres Craters Where There May Be Ice

Surprising Planet Has 3 Suns

Prebiotic Conditions May Exist On Saturn’s Moon

Lush Venus? Searing Earth? It Could Have Happened

Latest Headlines

updated 12:40pm EDT

NASA's Juno Spacecraft in Orbit Around Mighty Jupiter

July 5, 2016 — After an almost five-year journey to the solar system's largest planet, NASA's Juno spacecraft successfully entered Jupiter's orbit during a 35-minute engine burn. With its ... read more

A Giant Impact: Solving the Mystery of How Mars' Moons Formed

July 4, 2016 — Where did the two natural satellites of Mars, Phobos and Deimos, come from? For a long time, their shape suggested that they were asteroids captured by Mars. However, the ... read more

Jupiter on a Bench: Spacecraft Juno Nears Planet Orbit

June 30, 2016 — Earlier this year, in an experiment about five-feet long, researchers say they observed evidence of the abrupt transition of hydrogen from liquid insulator to liquid metal. ... read more

NASA’s Juno and JEDI: Ready to Unlock Mysteries of Jupiter

July 1, 2016 — The JEDI is one of several instruments aboard NASA's Juno spacecraft -- set to enter Jupiter orbit on July 4 -- that will help scientists answer fundamental questions about ... read more

A Bewildering Form of Sand Dune Discovered on Mars

June 30, 2016 — Some of the wind-sculpted sand ripples on Mars are a type not seen on Earth, and their relationship to the thin Martian atmosphere provides new clues about the ... read more

Chaotic Orbit of Comet Halley Explained

June 30, 2016 — Astronomers have found an explanation for the chaotic behavior of the orbit of Halley's ... read more

Hubble Captures Vivid Auroras in Jupiter’s Atmosphere

June 30, 2016 — Astronomers are using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to study auroras -- stunning light shows in a planet's atmosphere -- on the poles of the largest planet in the Solar ... read more

Surface of Mercury Arose from Deep Inside the Planet

June 29, 2016 — Researchers have found that several volcanic deposits on Mercury's surface require mantle melting to have started close to the planet's core-mantle boundary, which lies only ... read more

Moon Discovered Over Dwarf Planet Makemake in the Kuiper Belt

June 27, 2016 — Scientists have discovered an elusive, dark moon orbiting Makemake, one of the 'big four' dwarf planets populating the Kuiper Belt region at the edge of our ... read more

Mercury's Origins Traced to Rare Meteorite

June 27, 2016 — Geologists trace Mercury's origins to weird, rare meteorite, and find planet cooled dramatically shortly after ... read more

NASA's Space Probe Juno Finally Made It To Jupiter

NASA's Juno Spacecraft Orbits Jupiter, 'king of Solar System'

NASA Celebrates as Spacecraft Slips Into Orbit Around Jupiter

Welcome to Jupiter! NASA Spacecraft in Orbit

NASA Rover Findings Point to a More Earth-Like Martian Past

June 27, 2016 — Chemicals found in Martian rocks by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover suggest the Red Planet once had more oxygen in its atmosphere than it does now. The findings add to evidence revealing how ... read more

The Martian Becomes Reality: At Least Four Crops Grown on Simulated Mars Soil Are Edible

June 27, 2016 — Scientists are working on growing crops on Mars and moon soil simulants. Just like the real Martian and moon soil these contain heavy metals in almost the same quantities. Four of the crops grown ... read more

Opal Discovered in Antarctic Meteorite

June 27, 2016 — Planetary scientists have discovered pieces of opal in a meteorite found in Antarctica, a result that demonstrates that meteorites delivered water ice to asteroids early in the history of the solar ... read more

Hubble Confirms New Dark Spot on Neptune

June 23, 2016 — New images confirm the presence of a dark vortex on Neptune. Though similar features were seen during the Voyager 2 flyby of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope in 1989 and by Hubble in 1994, this ... read more

NASA Scientists Discover Unexpected Mineral on Mars

June 22, 2016 — Scientists have discovered an unexpected mineral in a rock sample at Gale Crater on Mars, a finding that may alter our understanding of how the planet ... read more

Present-Day Subsurface Ocean on Pluto?

June 21, 2016 — An updated thermal model for Pluto suggests that a liquid water ocean beneath the dwarf planet's ice shell is a fairly likely scenario, and that the ocean is probably still there ... read more

An Ocean Lies a Few Kilometers Beneath Saturn's Moon Enceladus's Icy Surface

June 21, 2016 — With eruptions of ice and water vapor, and an ocean covered by an ice shell, Saturn's moon Enceladus is one of the most fascinating in the Solar System, especially as interpretations of data ... read more

Newborn Giant Planet Grazes Its Star

June 20, 2016 — For the past 20 years, exoplanets known as 'hot Jupiters' have puzzled astronomers. These giant planets orbit 100 times closer to their host stars than Jupiter does to the Sun, which ... read more

NASA's K2 Finds Newborn Exoplanet Around Young Star

June 20, 2016 — Astronomers have discovered the youngest fully formed exoplanet ever detected. The newfound planet, K2-33b, is a bit larger than Neptune and whips tightly around its star every five days. It is only ... read more

Strong 'Electric Wind' Strips Planets of Oceans and Atmospheres

June 20, 2016 — Venus has an 'electric wind' strong enough to remove the components of water from its upper atmosphere, which may have played a significant role in stripping the planet of its ... read more

NASA's Juno Spacecraft to Risk Jupiter's Fireworks for Science

June 17, 2016 — On July 4, NASA will fly a solar-powered spacecraft the size of a basketball court within 2,900 miles (4,667 kilometers) of the cloud tops of our solar system's largest planet. During the ... read more

Unexpected Excess of Giant Planets in Star Cluster Messier 67

June 17, 2016 — Astronomers have found that there are far more planets of the hot Jupiter type than expected in a cluster of stars called Messier 67. This surprising result was obtained using a number of telescopes ... read more

CaSSIS Sends First Image of Mars

June 16, 2016 — The Mars Camera CaSSIS on the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter captured its first images of the Red Planet this week. The pictures are a part of the mission’s preparations for arriving at its destination ... read more

New Type of Meteorite Linked to Ancient Asteroid Collision

June 15, 2016 — An ancient space rock discovered in a Swedish quarry is a type of meteorite never before found on Earth, and likely a remnant of a massive asteroid collision 470 million years ago that sent debris ... read more

Fascinating Orbits: Celestial Bodies Surprisingly Erratic

June 14, 2016 — Astronomers are researching the way in which celestial bodies orbit each other, now and in the future. This often turns out to be more erratic than you might ... read more

Extreme Trans-Neptunian Objects Lead the Way to Planet Nine

June 13, 2016 — In the race towards the discovery of a ninth planet in our solar system, scientists from around the world strive to calculate its orbit using the tracks left by the small bodies that move well beyond ... read more

Remarkably Diverse Flora in Utah, USA, Trains Scientists for Future Missions on Mars

June 9, 2016 — Future manned missions to the Mars will rely heavily on training at sites here on Earth that serve as analogues to the red planet, such Utah's Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS), run by the ... read more

Listening to the Relics of the Milky Way: Sounds from Oldest Stars in Our Galaxy

June 6, 2016 — Astrophysicists have captured the sounds of some of the oldest stars in our galaxy, the Milky Way, according to new ... read more

Pluto as a Cosmic Lava Lamp: Giant Convective Cells Continually Refresh Dwarf Planet's Icy Heart

June 6, 2016 — Using computer models, New Horizons team members have been able to determine the depth of the layer of solid nitrogen ice within Pluto's distinctive 'heart' feature -- a large plain ... read more

Scientists Reconstruct the History of Asteroid Collisions

June 2, 2016 — An international study reveals that asteroids have endured a multitude of impact strikes since their formation 4,565 million years ago. Scientists have reconstructed a timeline of these collisions ... read more

Monday, June 27, 2016

Thursday, June 23, 2016