Planetary Science

A selfie of NASA's Perseverance Mars rover with sample tubes it deposited at a sample depot it is creating within an area of Jezero Crater nicknamed "Three Forks." The ninth tube dropped during the construction of the depot, containing the sample the science team refers to as "Atsah," can be seen in front of the rover. Other sample tubes are visible in the background.

Planetary ScienceJanuary 9, 2025

NASA’s Mars Sample Return Program Faces Stark Choices

NASA sees two paths for saving its beleaguered plan to retrieve materials from the Red Planet but won’t choose between them until 2026

Lee Billings

A composite of enhanced color images of Pluto (lower right) and Charon (upper left), taken by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft as it passed through the Pluto system on July 14, 2015. The color and brightness of both Pluto and Charon have been processed identically to allow direct comparison of their surface properties, and to highlight the similarity between Charon's polar red terrain and Pluto's equatorial red terrain. Pluto and Charon are shown with approximately correct relative sizes, but their true separation is not to scale. The image combines blue, red and infrared images taken by the spacecraft's Ralph/Multispectral Visual Imaging Camera (MVIC)

Planetary ScienceJanuary 8, 2025

Pluto May Have Won Its Moon Charon with a ‘Kiss’

Pluto and its largest moon Charon could have come together via a 10-hour “kiss-and-capture” encounter after a grazing collision

Robert Lea, SPACE.com

New Issue: Science’s Impossible Questions. Read Now

Creative photo illustration, highly detailed colorful "Supermoon" Pink Moon image with a star field background

Solar systemDecember 20, 2024

Ancient Moon Melt Event May Explain 150-Million-Year Gap in Age Estimates

The moon may have melted 4.35 billion years ago—explaining a lunar age mystery

Payal Dhar

Conceptual illustration of microbes in space

Extraterrestrial LifeDecember 19, 2024

Scientists Discover Earth Life inside an Asteroid Sample

Material from asteroid Ryugu riddled with earthly microbes provides a cautionary tale for scientists seeking signs of alien life

Sharmila Kuthunur

Conceptual illustration of a blue planet in space

Planetary ScienceDecember 17, 2024

We May Be on the Brink of Finding the Real Planet Nine

If there’s a hidden world in the solar system, a new telescope should find it

Robin George Andrews

Scenic view of silhouette of mountains against sky during sunset

The UniverseNovember 29, 2024

Sunbeams and the Belt of Venus Are Delightful Twilight Sights

“Twilight rays” are but one of several viewing treats for the liminal time between day and night

Phil Plait

Researchers prepare to weigh Chang'e-6 lunar samples.

Planetary ScienceNovember 21, 2024

First Rocks Returned from Moon’s Far Side Reveal Ancient Volcanic Activity

Samples from the far side of the moon gathered by China’s Chang’e 6 mission record eons of tumultuous lunar history

Davide Castelvecchi, Nature magazine

An image of the surprisingly smooth circumstellar disk around the star Vega, acquired using using the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) of the James Webb Space Telescope

Planetary ScienceNovember 19, 2024

Famous Star Hasn’t Formed Planets, and We Don’t Know Why

The nearby star Vega, featured in the 1997 movie Contact, appears to have a smooth disk devoid of giant planets for reasons we can’t explain

Jonathan O'Callaghan

Photograph of Venus transiting the sun which is partially obscured by clouds in the sky

The UniverseNovember 15, 2024

What’s the Roundest Object in the Universe?

Finding a perfect sphere is actually pretty difficult

Phil Plait

The UniverseNovember 8, 2024

Happy New Year! (If You’re a Martian)

The Martian new year arrives with the Red Planet’s vernal equinox. Explaining why requires a deep dive into celestial mechanics and Earth’s calendrical history

Phil Plait

A crescent moon at twilight, against a colorful sunset

The UniverseNovember 1, 2024

The Three Types of Twilight

At dusk and dawn, the sky dances with three phases of in-between light

Phil Plait

Illustration of the Earth as it may have been in the Archaean eon (3.8 to 2.5 billion years ago) in its early history. Columnar formations in the sea are stromatolites. In the background of the illustration is an active volcano and an asteroid falling through the atmosphere

Planetary ScienceOctober 21, 2024

An Ancient Asteroid Impact Both Harmed and Helped Life

A gigantic space rock that slammed into Earth more than three billion years ago grievously wounded the biosphere—and then helped it heal

Douglas Fox

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