Solar System

The top news about what's going on in the cosmic neighborhood—from planet nine to the sun, and everything in between.

Latest in Solar System

Close up shot of someone putting sunscreen lotion on a child on a sunny day.

4 sunscreen myths too many people still get wrong

By Popular Science Team

Highly detailed image of roiling plasma on the surface of the sun

Plasma waves spotted on sun’s surface for the first time

a meteor shower over grasslands

August stargazing: A planet parade, two eclipses, and one scary star

Martian butte surrounded by polygonal sediment formations

Curiosity rover spots ancient sea of Martian polygons

This illustration shows the system around the star CD-35 2722, with the newly found moon-like object at the centre. The star –– the point source to the left –– has about half the mass of our Sun, and it is orbited by a brown dwarf, the reddish-brown object seen here in the foreground (right). The brown dwarf has about 37 times the mass of Jupiter: too massive to be a planet, but not massive enough to have sustained nuclear fusion like stars. This brown dwarf is, in turn, orbited by a newly discovered object at least as massive as Jupiter, seen at the centre of this image. This new object, found with ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), is difficult to label. It behaves like a moon in the sense that it orbits an object that orbits a star. But this ‘moon’ is massive enough to be a planet, and the object it orbits, a brown dwarf, is neither a planet nor a star.

‘Super weird’ object may be space’s first confirmed exomoon

Screenshot from the time-lapse video shows the approach, close approach, and departure of NASA’s Psyche spacecraft at Mars as it used the planet’s gravity for a boost on its way to the asteroid Psyche.

Mars’ desolate desert landscape captured by asteroid-bound NASA spacecraft

Low-angle photo of good-looking mature woman with blond braided hair wearing sundress standing with arms raised in sunlight with blue sky in background.

Does summer actually make your hair grow faster?

By RJ Mackenzie

This artist’s concept depicts a near-Earth asteroid with an elongated orbit. A few objects such as these can exhibit significant perturbations in their motion around the Sun and, like the asteroid 1998 SH2, could turn out to be regular comets with a weak tail and coma (the gas and dust around a comet’s nucleus). NASA/JPL-Caltech

Near-Earth asteroid not an asteroid at all

This image of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS was taken on 18 January 2026 with the FORS2 instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT). It is a stack of several images spanning 14 minutes. As the comet moves on the sky, the stars appear as trails in the background.

Comet 3I/ATLAS is older than the sun

Artists impression of exoplanet WD 1856 b transiting its ‘dead’ host star,

The sun’s violent death could look like this

a meteor falls over a desert

July Stargazing: Meteors, more meteors, Pluto, and even more meteors

Game Boy Camera attached to Mount Wilson Observatory telescope eyepiece

Man uses a Game Boy Camera to photograph Jupiter

Asteroid in deep space, illustration

Asteroid as large as 5 cruise ships will soar past Earth this weekend

Lunar surface seen from above

Rare lunar meteorite was smacked three times before finally hitting Earth

a moon, poop emoji, plant emoji

NASA wastewater system will turn human poop into plant food

By Mack DeGeurin

An X-ray image of NWA 12774. Credit: Aaron Bell/CU Boulder

Rare meteorite proves our solar system almost had an extra planet

a full moon against a black and slightly blue sky

Look up for a blue moon on May 31

By Laura Baisas

Artist’s rendering of a MoonFall drone operating near the lunar South Pole.

Four drones will go where no astronaut have landed—yet

By Laura Baisas

the sun aligned with new york city's grid. it is shining above a main street in between buildings

Manhattanhenge isn’t just for New Yorkers. Find a ‘henge’ near you.

By Laura Baisas

a metal rover on sand

New Mars rover could swim through sand like a desert lizard

By Mack DeGeurin