Solar system

A comet’s brightness depends on how it’s made, how and when we see it, and even a bit of unpredictable luck

Former NASA officials warn that the U.S. looks poised to lose its self-declared race to beat China to the moon

Data from the James Webb Space Telescope and other observatories suggests a supervolcanic exomoon may lurk around the giant exoplanet WASP-39b

If you pick the right time, our home world and our moon could be easily visible from the Red Planet

A fresh analysis of old data has found rich organic chemistry within the hidden ocean of Saturn’s moon Enceladus

Many asteroids are related, but their family trees can be hard to trace

Lunar minerals can rust when bombarded with high-energy oxygen particles, experiments show

The 60-meter asteroid 2024 YR4 has a 4 percent chance of hitting the moon. Could such a lunar collision create a dangerous new meteor shower?

With no fuel or engines, tiny explorers will surf sun-warmed air alone to explore high in the skies of Earth and Mars

Beneath the surfaces of distant planets, microbes might subsist on harsh radiation rather than starlight, a new study suggests

Neptune’s discovery was a race that ended not long after this magazine came to be

The U.S. planetary science community is sounding the alarm about plans to discard a nuclear technology that has powered dozens of NASA missions over the past 50 years