Planet News
A Hi-Res Mosaic of Mercury’s Crescent
A view of Mercury from MESSENGER's October 2008 flyby (NASA / JHUAPL / Gordan Ugarkovic) Every now and then a…
Makemake’s Mysteriously Missing Atmosphere
Artist's impression of the surface of Makemake, a dwarf planet beyond Pluto (ESO/L. Calçada/Nick Risinger) It turns out there's no…
Keeping an Earthly Eye on Io’s Insane Volcanic Activity
Although space missions Voyager and Galileo observed evidence of volcanic activity on Io, it was a faint blue plume at…
Unexpected Find: ‘Rainforest’ of Phytoplankton Growth in the Arctic Ocean
[/caption] Imagine finding a rainforest in the middle of a desert. That is how NASA scientists are equating a new…
Rogue Planets Could Drive By And Scoop Up Life
[/caption] Free-floating "rogue" planets may occasionally dip into the inner Solar System, picking up dust containing organic compounds -- a.k.a.…
Rogue Planets Can Find Homes Around Other Stars
[/caption] As crazy as it sounds, free-floating rogue planets have been predicted to exist for quite some time and just…
Recent Geologic Activity on the Moon?
[/caption] Recent images from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera provide evidence that the lunar crust may be pulling apart in…
Could a ‘Death Star’ Really Destroy a Planet?
[/caption]Countless Sci-Fi fans vividly remember the famous scene in Star Wars in which the Death Star obliterates the planet Alderaan.…
Goldilocks Moons
[/caption] The search for extraterrestrial life outside our Solar System is currently focused on extrasolar planets within the 'habitable zones'…
Scientists Find Trio of Tiny Exoplanets
[/caption] NASA’s Kepler mission has detected no shortage of planets; more than a thousand candidates were discovered in 2011, a…