
Planetary Science
A possible new dwarf planet skirts the solar system’s edge
For the dwarf planet candidate, one trip around the sun takes over 24,000 years. Its orbit challenges a proposed path for a hypothetical Planet Nine.
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For the dwarf planet candidate, one trip around the sun takes over 24,000 years. Its orbit challenges a proposed path for a hypothetical Planet Nine.
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
Circular landforms speckling the Venusian surface may be the work of tectonic activity.
Simulations show that the star's tug could send Mercury, Venus or Mars crashing into Earth — or let Jupiter eject our world from the solar system.
A faint yet visible Martian aurora is the first instance of the phenomenon spotted from another planet's surface.
Kosmos 482 launched for Venus in 1972 but never left Earth orbit. The spacecraft finally lost enough energy that it couldn't fight gravity anymore.
At 300 light-years away, the interstellar cloud is the closest of its kind ever found to Earth and the largest apparent single structure in the sky.
Hubble is still going strong 35 years after it was launched into space. Celebrate its anniversary with some out-of-this-world images.
A blob of gas seen outside the Milky Way could be a type of starless, dark matter–dominated galaxy. Some scientists are skeptical.
Astronomers have a lot of thoughts about the latest paper claiming we’ve found the strongest hints of alien life yet on the distant planet K2 18b.
The Curiosity rover identified hidden caches of the mineral siderite, which could help explain why Mars lost its habitable climate.
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