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Solar System

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

Featured In Solar System

Don’t miss this weekend’s total lunar eclipse

By Purbita Saha

Here’s how to see Leonard’s Comet, the brightest comet all year

By Margo Milanowski

China’s Yutu 2 Rover investigated a ‘mysterious hut’ on the moon

By Margo Milanowski

The 123,000 MPH Plasma Engine That Could Finally Take Astronauts To Mars

By Sam Howe Verhovek

Juno finally got close enough to Jupiter’s Great Red Spot to measure its depth

By Leto Sapunar

Curiosity found a new organic molecule on Mars

By Margo Milanowski

How to photograph the moon like a pro

By Stan Horaczek

Perseverance is cutting perfect circles out of Mars to search for signs of life

By Margo Milanowski

Astronomers just mapped the ‘bubble’ that envelopes our planet

By Tatyana Woodall

Inside NASA’s messy plan to return to the moon by 2024

By Leto Sapunar

Your ancestors might have been Martians

By Charlie Wood

There’s an especially big window to catch this week’s eclipse of the Beaver Moon

By Margo Milanowski

Explore Solar System

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Sun Pluto Moons Mars

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Your guide to the types of stars, from their dusty births to violent deaths

By Eva Botkin-Kowacki

Clouds of ancient space water might have filled Earth’s oceans

By Jon Kelvey

Hold onto your satellites: The sun is about to get a lot stormier

By Jon Kelvey

Why is space cold if the sun is hot?

By Donavyn Coffey

Small ‘sparks’ on the sun could be key to forecasting dramatic solar weather

By Laura Baisas

A potentially revolutionary solar harvester just left the planet

By Andrew Paul

How worried should we be about solar flares and space weather?

By Eva Botkin-Kowacki

World’s largest telescope array is almost ready to stare straight into the sun

By Andrew Paul

Just in time for Halloween, the sun looks like a jack-o’-lantern

By Laura Baisas

It’s finally the fall equinox—and a great time to see shimmering auroras

By Helen Bradshaw

The sun’s chromosphere is shades of golden in these new images

By Laura Baisas

See the stars from the Milky Way mapped as a dazzling rainbow

By Purbita Saha

Pluto is not a planet because of one small technicality

By Charlie Wood

Pluto’s icy volcanoes may have once belched ‘antifreeze lava’

By Kate Baggaley

How Pluto keeps its secret ocean warm

By Neel V. Patel

Frigid Pluto may have had a toasty start

By Kate Baggaley

These Are The Best Photos Of Pluto Any Human Has Ever Seen

By Sarah Fecht

The outer solar system awaits—but getting there may not be as easy as we’d like

By John Wenz

New Horizons Sees A Slice Of Pluto’s Heart, Dirty Water Icebergs, and More

By Sarah Fecht

What We’ve Learned From The Pluto Flyby

By Edited and condensed by Sophie Bushwick

Amazing Pictures Of Pluto’s (Possible) Ice Volcano

By Mary Beth Griggs

Pluto’s Surface May Be Alive Thanks To Planetary Antifreeze

By Sarah Fecht

Pluto Might Have Ice Volcanoes On Its Surface

By Mary Beth Griggs

Pluto Gets Reclassified Again

By Matt Ransford

We finally have a detailed map of water on the moon

By Briley Lewis

NASA finally got comfier spacesuits, but astronauts still have to poop in them

By Jon Kelvey

Moonlight will help inspire a Danish church’s wildlife-friendly design

By Theo Nicitopoulos / Hakai Magazine

Lunar dust is notoriously hard to clean, but a new spray might do the trick

By Andrew Paul

Moondust could chill out our overheated Earth, some scientists predict

By Rahul Rao

Astronomers find 12 more moons orbiting Jupiter

By Laura Baisas

Here’s what to look for in the night sky this February

By Laura Baisas

How old is Earth? It’s a surprisingly tough question to answer.

By Eva Botkin-Kowacki

This map-making AI could be the first step towards GPS on the moon

By Tatyana Woodall

A mysterious magma ocean could fuel our solar system’s most volcanic world

By Briley Lewis

Artemis I’s solar panels harvested a lot more energy than expected

By Briley Lewis

ispace’s private lander might be the first to touch down on the moon

By Tatyana Woodall

Our homes on Mars could be made from potato-based ‘StarCrete’

By Andrew Paul

NASA’s Curiosity rover captures a moody Martian sunset for the first time

By Laura Baisas

SETI thinks AI could help rovers search for life on Mars

By Andrew Paul

Want to travel to Mars? Here’s how long the trip could take.

By Eva Botkin-Kowacki

Would Earth laws apply to Mars colonists?

By Sarah Fecht

Perseverance rover makes its first package delivery: a unique kind of Mars rock

By Laura Baisas

InSight says goodbye with what may be its last wistful image of Mars

By Laura Baisas

The wind on Mars may be a viable power source after all

By Andrew Paul

For the first time, humans can hear a dust devil roar across Mars

By Laura Baisas

Signs of past chemical reactions detected on Mars

By Laura Baisas

Two meteorite mysteries are helping astronomers investigate the origins of life

By Rahul Rao

Saying goodbye to NASA’s InSight lander before it’s buried in Martian dust

By Tatyana Woodall

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Deep Space International Space Station NASA Private Space Flight

Gritty, swirling clouds of silica surround exoplanet VHS 1256 b

By Laura Baisas

The secret to Voyagers’ spectacular space odyssey

By Tatyana Woodall

Your guide to the types of stars, from their dusty births to violent deaths

By Eva Botkin-Kowacki

James Webb Space Telescope captures the beauty of a rare, violent phenomena

By Purbita Saha

DART left an asteroid crime scene. This mission is on deck to investigate it.

By Rahul Rao

Clouds of ancient space water might have filled Earth’s oceans

By Jon Kelvey

Sorry, Star Trek fans, the real planet Vulcan doesn’t exist

By Briley Lewis

5 ways we know DART crushed that asteroid (but not literally)

By Jon Kelvey

Black hole collisions could possibly send waves cresting through space-time

By Briley Lewis

International Space Station

NASA finally got comfier spacesuits, but astronauts still have to poop in them

By Jon Kelvey

International Space Station

Private space missions will bring more countries to the ISS

By Jon Kelvey

International Space Station

The ISS is the best place for an astronaut to get stuck in space

By Briley Lewis

International Space Station

Dark matter, Jupiter’s moons, and more: What to expect from space exploration in 2023

By Jon Kelvey

International Space Station

ISS astronauts are building objects that couldn’t exist on Earth

By Rahul Rao

International Space Station

Microgravity tomatoes, yogurt bacteria, and plastic eating microbes are headed to the ISS

By Andrew Paul

International Space Station

The ISS’s latest arrivals: a 3D printer, seeds, and ovarian cow cells

By Andrew Paul

International Space Station

Scientists want to know how our tiny gut organisms change when we bring them along to space

By Doug Johnson/Undark

International Space Station

Nicole A. Mann becomes first Native American woman in space

By Laura Baisas

Gritty, swirling clouds of silica surround exoplanet VHS 1256 b

By Laura Baisas

Why scientists are studying the clouds of debris left in DART’s wake

By Laura Baisas

The secret to Voyagers’ spectacular space odyssey

By Tatyana Woodall

We finally have a detailed map of water on the moon

By Briley Lewis

Venus could still be spewing lava, and scientists are hellbent on proving it

By Rahul Rao

NASA finally got comfier spacesuits, but astronauts still have to poop in them

By Jon Kelvey

James Webb Space Telescope captures the beauty of a rare, violent phenomena

By Purbita Saha

NASA’s Curiosity rover captures a moody Martian sunset for the first time

By Laura Baisas

5 ways we know DART crushed that asteroid (but not literally)

By Jon Kelvey

Private Space Flight

College students built a satellite with AA batteries and a $20 microprocessor

By Andrew Paul

Private Space Flight

These 3D printed engines can power space-bound rockets—or hypersonic weapons

By Sarah Scoles

Private Space Flight

NASA finally got comfier spacesuits, but astronauts still have to poop in them

By Jon Kelvey

Private Space Flight

Private space missions will bring more countries to the ISS

By Jon Kelvey

Private Space Flight

Would Earth laws apply to Mars colonists?

By Sarah Fecht

Private Space Flight

SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy launches have been a slow burn—for an interesting reason

By Jon Kelvey

Private Space Flight

A historic first satellite launch in the UK has failed

By Andrew Paul

Private Space Flight

Dark matter, Jupiter’s moons, and more: What to expect from space exploration in 2023

By Jon Kelvey

Private Space Flight

Rocket fuel might be polluting the Earth’s upper atmosphere

By Ben Guarino

Latest Solar System Stories

We finally have a detailed map of water on the moon

By Briley Lewis

/ Mar 21, 2023

Our homes on Mars could be made from potato-based ‘StarCrete’

By Andrew Paul

/ Mar 20, 2023

Your guide to the types of stars, from their dusty births to violent deaths

By Eva Botkin-Kowacki

/ Mar 19, 2023

NASA finally got comfier spacesuits, but astronauts still have to poop in them

By Jon Kelvey

/ Mar 15, 2023

Moonlight will help inspire a Danish church’s wildlife-friendly design

By Theo Nicitopoulos / Hakai Magazine

/ Mar 13, 2023

Clouds of ancient space water might have filled Earth’s oceans

By Jon Kelvey

/ Mar 10, 2023

NASA’s Curiosity rover captures a moody Martian sunset for the first time

By Laura Baisas

/ Mar 7, 2023

SETI thinks AI could help rovers search for life on Mars

By Andrew Paul

/ Mar 6, 2023

Lunar dust is notoriously hard to clean, but a new spray might do the trick

By Andrew Paul

/ Mar 1, 2023

Seismologists might have identified the deepest layer of Earth’s core

By Jack Izzo

/ Feb 28, 2023

March skies will bring a lunar illusion and planetary reunion

By Laura Baisas

/ Feb 27, 2023

Hold onto your satellites: The sun is about to get a lot stormier

By Jon Kelvey

/ Feb 27, 2023

Uranus’s quirks and hidden features have astronomers jazzed about a direct mission

By Briley Lewis

/ Feb 22, 2023

Want to travel to Mars? Here’s how long the trip could take.

By Eva Botkin-Kowacki

/ Feb 21, 2023

Why is space cold if the sun is hot?

By Donavyn Coffey

/ Feb 18, 2023

Hubble telescope spies Saturn’s rings in ‘spoke season’

By Laura Baisas

/ Feb 10, 2023

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