1–20 of 28 results
Mimas appears like the Death Star

Solar System

How Saturn’s Moon Mimas Might Have Melted

Maybe everything in the outer solar system is an ocean world.

Solar System

Webb Telescope Reveals Worlds in the Farthest Reaches of the Solar System

James Webb Space Telescope data on distant worlds confirm some solar system formation hypotheses and confuse others.

Makemake and its moon artwork

Solar System

Webb Telescope Spies Hints That Solar System's Outskirts Are a Hotbed of Activity

The James Webb Space Telescope has found that distant dwarf planets might be methane factories.

Dinkinesh and its contact-binary moon

Solar System

Lucy Mission Flies By Asteroid Dinkinesh, Finds Binary Moon (Updated)

The Lucy mission's flyby of the main-belt asteroid Dinkinesh resulted in a surprise — yet another asteroid moon!

Psyche launch

Space Missions

Psyche Mission Is on the Way to Psyche, the Asteroid

The Psyche mission launched today, on its way to rendezvous with the asteroid of the same name in 2029.

Sedna

Solar System

“Planet X” May Have Left Our Solar System Billions of Years Ago

A new understanding of far-off worlds in the outer solar system suggests that if "Planet X" ever existed, it has long since left the vicinity.

Solar System

Psyche Asteroid Mission Set for Launch October 5th

NASA’s newest mission is bound for the metallic asteroid of the same name. The metal-rich rock offers us a view of asteroid interiors.

C-shape section of E ring with ghostly moon in the middle

Solar System

Phosphates Swim in the Ocean of Saturn's Moon Enceladus

Scientists detected phosphorous in an extraterrestrial ocean for the first time when they analyzed data from Saturn's moon Enceladus.

Space Missions

Psyche on Track for October Launch to Metal-rich Asteroid

After a year's delay, NASA's Psyche mission to the metal-rich asteroid of the same name is on track for a launch in October 2023.

Solar System

Four of Uranus's Moons Might Contain Briny Oceans

Four of Uranus's five icy moons likely contain a thin layer of briny (or otherwise enriched) water, astronomers have concluded from Voyager 2 data.

Oumuamua painting by Hartmann

Exoplanets

Was Interstellar Object `Oumuamua a Chunk of Exo-Pluto?

The interstellar pancake named 'Oumuamua might have been a chip off a Pluto-like object in another star system.

nearby view of ejecta streaming out from asteroid

Space Missions

DART Asteroid Redirect Test Wildly Successful

They needed to shorten the moon’s orbit by 73 seconds. They shortened it by more than half an hour.

collection of still images showing a small white dot moving across a black background and dissolving into a plume of white dust

Solar System

Photos Show Drama of DART Asteroid Impact (Updated)

The DART impact into asteroid moon Dimorphos wowed astronomers with an unexpectedly dramatic plume.

Dimorphos' rocky surface

Solar System

NASA's DART Mission Successfully Impacts Asteroid

NASA's DART mission will impact the asteroidal moon Didymos on Monday. Here's how to watch and what we'll learn.

NASA's DART mission

Solar System

NASA’s DART Mission Launches for Head-on Collision with an Asteroid

The first-ever planetary defense mission is now on its way to the asteroid Didymos and its moon, Dimorphos.

Illustration of BepiColumbo in front of Mercury

Solar System

BepiColombo First Picture of Mercury (Updated)

BepiColombo is set to make the first of several flybys past Mercury on Friday, October 1st.

Venus flybys

Space Missions

Two Space Probes to Pass by Venus (Update)

Two spacecraft are heading for a close Venus encounter: Solar Orbiter passes by on August 9th and BepiColombo on August 10th.

Mars Ascent Vehicle concept

Science and Space Policy

Mars Sample Return Program Forges Ahead

It's full steam ahead for the joint NASA-ESA Mars Sample Return, a complex plan to collect bits of Mars and — for the first time — send them to Earth.

Mars south pole ice cap

Solar System

Evidence Grows for Super-Salty Underground Lakes on Mars

New analysis of data from the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter strengthens the case for salty lakes underneath Mars's south polar cap.

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