Scientists discover a giant planet swinging around its star on a bizarre path
Astronomers have discovered a planet three times the mass of Jupiter that travels on a long, egg-shaped path around its star.
If this planet were...
Dark sides of some hot exoplanets have clouds made of minerals and rocks
A new study by McGill University astronomers has found that the temperature on the nightsides of different hot Jupiters is surprisingly uniform.
This suggests the...
What’s Mars solar conjunction, and why does it matter?
The daily chatter between antennas here on Earth and those on NASA spacecraft at Mars is about to get much quieter for a few...
Why we need to get back to Venus
Just next door, cosmologically speaking, is a planet almost exactly like Earth.
It’s about the same size, is made of about the same stuff and...
Salt deposits on Mars hold clues to sources of ancient water
For centuries, miners have burrowed into the earth in search of salt—laid down in thick layers from ancient oceans long since evaporated.
When scientists saw...
Scientists discover a giant planet around 2,800 times the mass of earth
Astronomers have discovered a new planet around a nearby star that is nine times the mass of Jupiter and more than 2,800 times the...
30 years ago: NASA’s Voyager 2 made a historic Neptune flyby
Thirty years ago, on Aug. 25, 1989, NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft made a close flyby of Neptune, giving humanity its first close-up of our...
Storms on Jupiter are disturbing the planet’s colorful belts
Storm clouds rooted deep in Jupiter's atmosphere are affecting the planet's white zones and colorful belts, creating disturbances in their flow and even changing...
NASA gets a rare look at a rocky exoplanet’s surface
A new study using data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope provides a rare glimpse of conditions on the surface of a rocky planet orbiting...
Scientists discover another giant planet in the Beta Pictoris system
Astronomers have discovered a second giant planet in orbit around β Pictoris, a star that is relatively young (23 million years old) and close...