Solar System News

September 9, 2016

Amazing Compounds Inside Uranus and Neptune?

Earth's Carbon Points to Planetary Smashup

Jupiter's North Pole Unlike Anything Else

Images Reveal Origins of Solar Wind

Latest Headlines

updated 12:41am EDT

NASA's SDO Witnesses a Double Eclipse

Sep. 2, 2016 — Early in the morning of Sept. 1, 2016, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO, caught both Earth and the moon crossing in front of the sun. SDO keeps a constant eye on the ... read more

Discovery One-Ups Tatooine, Finds Twin Stars Hosting Three Giant Exoplanets

Aug. 31, 2016 — Scientists have discovered three giant planets in a binary star system composed of stellar 'twins' that are also effectively siblings of our Sun. One star hosts two planets ... read more

Anomalous Grooves on Martian Moon Phobos Explained by Impacts

Aug. 30, 2016 — Some of the mysterious grooves on the surface of Mars' moon Phobos are the result of debris ejected by impacts eventually falling back onto the surface to form linear chains ... read more

Planet Nine Could Spell Doom for Solar System

Aug. 30, 2016 — The solar system could be thrown into disaster when the sun dies if the mysterious 'Planet Nine' exists, according to ... read more

Hunt for Ninth Planet Reveals New Extremely Distant Solar System Objects

Aug. 29, 2016 — In the race to discover a proposed ninth planet in our Solar System, researchers have observed several never-before-seen objects at extreme distances from the Sun in our ... read more

35 Years On, Voyager's Legacy Continues at Saturn

Aug. 24, 2016 — Saturn, with its alluring rings and numerous moons, has long fascinated stargazers and scientists. After an initial flyby of Pioneer 11 in 1979, humanity got a second, much ... read more

Fossilized Rivers Suggest Warm, Wet Ancient Mars

Aug. 23, 2016 — Extensive systems of fossilized riverbeds have been discovered on an ancient region of the Martian surface, supporting the idea that the now cold and dry Red Planet had a warm and wet climate about 4 ... read more

A New Goldilocks for Habitable Planets

Aug. 19, 2016 — The search for habitable, alien worlds needs to make room for a second 'Goldilocks,' according to a researcher. A new study suggests that simply being in the habitable zone isn't sufficient to ... read more

Venus-Like Exoplanet Might Have Oxygen Atmosphere, but Not Life

Aug. 18, 2016 — The distant planet GJ 1132b intrigued astronomers when it was discovered last year. Located just 39 light-years from Earth, it might have an atmosphere despite being baked to ... read more

NASA Asteroid Redirect Mission Completes Design Milestone

Aug. 17, 2016 — Following a key program review, NASA approved the Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) to proceed to the next phase of design and development for the mission's robotic segment. ... read more

Nearby Earth-Like Planet Discovered

'Earth-Like' Planet Found Just Outside Solar System

NASA Set to Launch Mission for Asteroid Sample

Sky-High Pic Du Midi Offers Tourists Stellar Views

Venus May Have Been Habitable, NASA Climate Modeling Suggests

Aug. 11, 2016 — Venus may have had a shallow liquid-water ocean and habitable surface temperatures for up to two billion years of its early history, according to NASA computer modeling of the planet's ancient ... read more

Mars Gullies Likely Not Formed by Liquid Water

Aug. 10, 2016 — New findings using data from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) show that gullies on modern Mars are most likely not being formed by flowing liquid water. This new evidence will allow ... read more

Cassini Finds Flooded Canyons on Saturn's Moon Titan

Aug. 10, 2016 — NASA's Cassini spacecraft has found deep, steep-sided canyons on Saturn's moon Titan that are flooded with liquid hydrocarbons. The finding represents the first direct evidence of the ... read more

Evidence of Martian Life Could Be Hard to Find in Some Meteorite Blast Sites

Aug. 8, 2016 — Signs of life from under Mars’ surface may not survive in rocks excavated by some meteorite impacts, scientists suggest at the point of preliminary study ... read more

Most Volcanic Activity on Mercury Stopped About 3.5 Billion Years Ago

Aug. 5, 2016 — New research finds that major volcanic activity on the planet Mercury most likely ended about 3.5 billion years ago. These findings add insight into the geological evolution of Mercury in particular, ... read more

Veins on Mars Were Formed by Evaporating Ancient Lakes

Aug. 5, 2016 — Mineral veins found in Mars's Gale Crater were formed by the evaporation of ancient Martian lakes, a new study has ... read more

'GPS in Space': Bringing Autonomous Interplanetary Travel Closer to Reality

Aug. 4, 2016 — An accurate method for spacecraft navigation takes a leap forward today as new research reveals that a spacecraft's position in space in the direction of a particular pulsar can be calculated ... read more

Most Likely Earth-Like Exoplanets Cataloged

Aug. 3, 2016 — An international team of researchers has pinpointed which of the more than 4,000 exoplanets discovered by NASA's Kepler mission are most likely to be similar to Earth. The research outlines 216 ... read more

Space Scientists Observe Io's Atmospheric Collapse During Eclipse

Aug. 2, 2016 — Astronomers have documented atmospheric changes on Io, Jupiter's volcanically active satellite, as the giant planet casts its shadow over the moon's surface during daily ... read more

Apollo Astronauts Experiencing Higher Rates of Cardiovascular-Related Deaths

July 28, 2016 — Members of the successful Apollo space program are experiencing higher rates of cardiovascular problems that are thought to be caused by their exposure to deep space radiation, according to a new ... read more

Jupiter's Great Red Spot Heats Planet's Upper Atmosphere

July 27, 2016 — Researchers have discovered that Jupiter's Great Red Spot may provide the mysterious source of energy required to heat the planet's upper atmosphere to the unusually high values ... read more

Puzzling Paucity of Large Craters on Dwarf Planet Ceres

July 26, 2016 — A team of scientists has made a puzzling observation while studying the size and distribution of craters on the dwarf planet Ceres -- the largest object in the tumultuous Main Asteroid Belt between ... read more

Digging Deeper Into Mars

July 25, 2016 — Scientists continue to unravel the mystery of life on Mars by investigating evidence of water in the planet's soil. Previous observations of soil observed along crater slopes on Mars showed a ... read more

Asteroid That Formed Moon's Imbrium Basin May Have Been Protoplanet-Sized

July 20, 2016 — The asteroid that slammed into the moon 3.8 billion years ago creating the Imbrium Basin may have had a diameter of at least 150 miles, according to a new estimate. The work helps explain puzzling ... read more

NASA's Kepler Confirms 100+ Exoplanets During Its K2 Mission

July 18, 2016 — Scientists report the largest haul of confirmed planets - tallying more than a hundred -- since NASA's Kepler space telescope switched from staring into one patch of sky to detecting planets ... read more

Warm Jupiters Not as Lonely as Expected

July 14, 2016 — After analyzing four years of Kepler space telescope observations, astronomers have given us our clearest understanding yet of a class of exoplanets called 'Warm Jupiters,' showing that ... read more

Stellar Outburst Brings Water Snowline Around a Young Star Into View

July 13, 2016 — A violent outburst by the young star V883 Orionis has given astronomers using ALMA their first view of a water 'snowline' in a protoplanetary disk -- the transition point around the star ... read more

NASA's Juno Spacecraft Sends First in-Orbit View

July 12, 2016 — The JunoCam camera aboard NASA's Juno mission is operational and sending down data after the spacecraft's July 4 arrival at Jupiter. Juno's visible-light camera was turned on six days ... read more

NASA Camera Catches Moon 'Photobombing' Earth

July 11, 2016 — For only the second time in a year, a NASA camera aboard the DSCOVR satellite captured a view of the moon as it moved in front of the sunlit side of Earth. From its position between the sun and ... read more

Astronomers Discover New Distant Dwarf Planet Beyond Neptune

July 11, 2016 — Astronomers have discovered a new dwarf planet orbiting in the disk of small icy worlds beyond Neptune. The new object is about 700 km in diameter and has one of the largest orbits for a dwarf ... read more

Thursday, August 11, 2016