Solar System
Interstellar Comet 2I/Borisov Appears to Have Broken in Half
In 2019, amateur astronomer Gennadiy Borisov discovered a comet, which now bears his name. There's a long history of amateur…
The heliosphere looks a lot weirder than we originally thought
Every second of every day, our sun spits out a stream of tiny high-energy particles, known as the solar wind.…
New Study Shows the Earth and Moon are not so Similar After All
A new study shows that Earth and the Moon are not as similar as we thought, which helps resolve a…
An Asteroid has been Found that Orbits the Sun Closer than Venus
Astronomers at Caltech's Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) have discovered an asteroid that orbits inside Venus. Though other asteroids have a…
Satellites Watched Mercury’s Transit From Space, Confirming That Yes, the Sun Has At Least One Planet
Do you wonder how astronomers find all those exoplanets orbiting stars in distant solar systems? Mostly they use the transit…
A NASA Panel Says We Don’t Need to be so Careful About Infecting Other Worlds
It's time to update the rules. That's the conclusion of a panel that examined NASA's rules for planetary protection. It…
Rosetta Saw Collapsing Cliffs and Other Changes on 67P During its Mission
It seems that comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko is not the stoic, unchanging Solar System traveller that it might seem to be. Scientists…
Enceladus Causes Snowfall On Other Moons of Saturn
Radar evidence shows that geysers on Enceladus are ejecting water that turns to snow. The snow not only falls back…
Metallic Asteroids Might Have Had Volcanoes Erupting Molten Iron. That’s So Metal
Remember the asteroid Psyche? It's the largest known asteroid in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. It's been in…
The Moon is Older Than Scientists Thought
The most comprehensive and widely-held theory of how the Moon formed is called the 'giant impact hypothesis.' That hypothesis shows…