Planetary Science
- Astronomy
Scalding hot gas giant breaks heat records
KELT 9b’s sun blasts it with so much radiation that the planet’s dayside is hotter than most stars and its atmosphere is being stripped away.
- Particle Physics
Readers puzzled by proton’s properties
Readers sent feedback on under-ice greenhouses in the Arctic, the Martian atmosphere and more.
- Planetary Science
Why you can hear and see meteors at the same time
People can see and hear meteors simultaneously because of radio waves produced by the descending space rocks.
- Planetary Science
Citizen scientists join the search for Planet 9
Backyard Worlds: Planet 9, a citizen science project, lets space enthusiasts search for undiscovered objects in the sky, including a hypothesized planet at the far reaches of the solar system.
- Planetary Science
Juno spacecraft reveals a more complex Jupiter
NASA’s Juno spacecraft has sent back unexpected details about Jupiter, giving scientists their first intimate look at the giant planet.
- Planetary Science
TRAPPIST-1’s seventh planet is a chilly world
Follow-up observations of TRAPPIST-1 and its seven planets reveals details about the outermost one.
- Planetary Science
TRAPPIST-1’s seventh planet is a chilly world
Follow-up observations of TRAPPIST-1 and its seven planets reveals details about the outermost one.
- Planetary Science
50 years ago, an Earth-based telescope spotted Saturn’s fourth ring
Scientists now rely on spacecraft to chart the intricate rings of the gas giant.
- Health & Medicine
Readers ponder the randomness of DNA errors
Readers sent feedback on cellular slip-ups, moon mayhem and more.
- Planetary Science
Watery exoplanet’s skies suggest unexpected origin story
Compared with Neptune, HAT-P-26b’s atmosphere has few heavy elements, suggesting it formed differently than the ice giants in Earth’s solar system.
- Planetary Science
Oxygen on comet 67P might not be ancient after all
Molecular oxygen detected around comet 67P may not be a relic of the solar system’s birth. Instead, it may be generated by interactions of water, the solar wind and the comet’s surface.
- Planetary Science
Mars may not have been born alongside the other rocky planets
Mars formed farther away from the sun than its present-day orbit, not near the other terrestrial planets, new research suggests.
