Solar System
Drama In Low-Earth Orbit As LightSail2 Deploys Its Sails
LightSail 2 has successfully deployed its solar sails. Shortly after 12:00 pm PST The Planetary Society tweeted that the sails…
The Japanese asteroid-hunter had another photo opportunity when it dropped a target marker on asteroid Ryugu
Japan's Hayabusa2 spacecraft just launched its second target marker to the surface of the asteroid Ryugu.
Most of the Solar System Should be a Protected Wilderness. One-Eighth Left for Mining and Resource Exploitation
A new study by an astrophysicist and a professor of ethics takes a look at the future of humanity in…
Some of Earth’s Gold Came From Two Neutron Stars That Collided Billions of Years Ago
A new study has shown that a good deal of Earth's heaviest elements may have come from a nearby neutron…
The Record for the Most Distant Object in the Solar System has been Shattered. Introducing FarFarOut at 140 Astronomical Units
Remember Far Out, the distant planet at the far reaches of the Solar System, that was discovered in December, 2018?…
Tiny Object Found at the Edge of the Solar System for the First Time. A Kuiper Belt Object that’s Only 2.6 km Across
The Kuiper Belt, or the Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt, is home to ancient rocks. Kuiper Belt Objects, or KBOs, are remnants of…
Titan’s Thick Clouds Obscure our View, but Cassini Took these Images in Infrared, Showing the Moon’s Surface Features
Saturn's moon Titan is a very strange place. It's surrounded by a dense, opaque atmosphere, the only moon in the…
Interstellar Objects like Oumuamua Probably Crash into the Sun Every 30 Years or so and 2 Pass Within the Orbit of Mercury
A new study by a team of Harvard scientists reveals how we could study future interstellar visitors like 'Oumuamua
Something Twice the Size of Earth Slammed into Uranus and Knocked it Over on its Side
Astronomers think they know how Uranus got flipped onto its side. According to detailed computer simulations, a body about twice…
Just discovered! “Farout”, the Farthest Object Ever Seen in the Solar System
Astronomers have discovered a distant body that's more than 100 times farther from the Sun than Earth is. Its provisional…