Tagged: planet

The two largest planets in the solar system, Jupiter and Saturn, have fascinated astronomers for hundreds of years. But the two gas giants will do something next month not seen since the Middle Ages — they will look like a double planet. The rare occurrence...

Scientists have confirmed the existence of a massive “super-puff” exoplanet, one that is as large as Jupiter but 10 times lighter and could change how humanity explores the universe. The planet, known as WASP-107b, was first found in 2017, but it wasn’t until recently that...

Although scientists have yet to find the elusive Planet 9, a recently discovered exoplanet in deep space may provide further evidence the mysterious celestial object indeed exists. The exoplanet HD 106906 b is 336 light years from Earth and has a bizarre orbit around its...

A number of planets described as Super-Earths have been discovered in recent memory, but researchers have recently spotted one unlike any other found to date. The planet, known as TOI-561 b, orbits the TOI-561 star system, according to a study published in The Astronomical Journal....

An orbiting NASA telescope is finding whole new worlds of possibilities in the search for alien life, including more than 50 potential planets that appear to be in the habitable zone. In just a year of peering out at a small slice of the galaxy,...

A new view of the solar system’s early days proposes that the first two kinds of solid materials — the precursors of space rocks and ultimately planets — both formed at the same time. When the sun was born about 4.6 billion years ago, it...

A NASA probe is about to get the first up-close look at a potentially habitable alien world. In March 2015, NASA’s Dawn spacecraft will arrive in orbit around the dwarf planet Ceres, the largest object in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Ceres...

Astronomers have caught the first views of auroras on the planet Uranus from a telescope near Earth, revealing tantalizing views of the tilted giant planet’s hard-to-catch light shows. The Uranus aurora photos were captured by the Hubble Space Telescope, marking the first time the icy...

If you’re fed up with the Earth’s people, pandemic and politics, you might be pleased to know there’s a newly discovered, untouched world out there that might be perfect for you — as long as you don’t mind red light or figuring out your own...

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and Autodesk, a software company, have engaged in a multiyear collaborative research project to investigate new approaches for building interplanetary landers. The concept lander, perhaps the most complicated structure ever created using “generative design,” was unveiled today (Nov. 13) at...