Solar System News

May 1, 2025

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New Look at Galactic Region Surrounding Our Solar System: Lyman-Alpha Emissions

Apr. 28, 2025 — The NASA New Horizons spacecraft's extensive observations of Lyman-alpha emissions have resulted in the first-ever map from the galaxy at this important ultraviolet wavelength, providing a new look ...

New Research Shatters Long-Held Beliefs About Asteroid Vesta

Apr. 28, 2025 — For decades, scientists believed Vesta, one of the largest objects in our solar system's asteroid belt, wasn't just an asteroid and eventually concluded it was more like a planet with a crust, mantle and core. Now, new research flips this notion on ...

Volcanic History and Clues to Ancient Life on Mars

Apr. 18, 2025 — Researchers use the sophisticated technology on NASA's Perseverance rover to analyze volcanic rocks in Mars' Jezero Crater. Their findings show that some of the same volcanic processes that led to life on Earth happened long ago on Mars, a stunning ...

Astronomers Find Earth-Like Exoplanets Common Across the Cosmos

Apr. 25, 2025 — Astronomers have discovered that super-Earth exoplanets are more common across the universe than previously thought. While it can be relatively easy to locate worlds that orbit close to their star, planets with wider paths can be difficult to ...

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Astronomers Discover a Planet That's Rapidly Disintegrating, Producing a Comet-Like Tail

Apr. 22, 2025 — A planet 140 light-years from Earth is rapidly coming apart due to its close proximity to its star. The roasting planet is effectively evaporating ...

Did It Rain or Snow on Ancient Mars? New Study Suggests It Did

Apr. 21, 2025 — Geologists weigh in on a long-running debate about Mars: Billions of years ago, was the Red Planet warm and wet or cold and ...

Scientists Probe the Mystery of Titan's Missing Deltas

Apr. 18, 2025 — New research finds that despite large rivers and seas of liquid methane, Saturn's moon Titan seems mostly devoid of river deltas, raising new questions about the surface dynamics on this alien ...

Curiosity Rover Finds Large Carbon Deposits on Mars

Apr. 17, 2025 — Research from NASA's Curiosity rover has found evidence of a carbon cycle on ancient ...

Ever Wonder Why Some Meteor Showers Are So Unpredictable?

Apr. 16, 2025 — Why do comets and their meteoroid streams weave in and out of Earth's orbit and their orbits disperse over time? Researchers show that this is not due to the random pull of the planets, but rather ...

Crystal Clues on Mars Point to Watery and Possibly Life-Supporting Past

Apr. 16, 2025 — A new study analyzing data from NASA's Perseverance rover has uncovered compelling evidence of multiple mineral-forming events just beneath the Martian surface -- findings that bring scientists one ...

On Jupiter, It's Mushballs All the Way Down

Apr. 15, 2025 — Observations of Jupiter show that ammonia is unevenly distributed in the upper atmosphere, against expectations of uniform mixing. Scientists found evidence for a complicated but apparently real ...

Molten Martian Core Could Explain Red Planet's Magnetic Quirks

Apr. 15, 2025 — First ever supercomputer simulations of Mars with a fully molten core could explain the Red Planet's unusual magnetic field. Billions of years ago, Mars had an active magnetic field. Mysteriously, ...

Mysterious Atmosphere of 'Rosetta Stone' Exoplanet

Apr. 15, 2025 — A new study modeled the chemistry of TOI-270 d, an exoplanet between Earth and Neptune in size, finding evidence that it could be a giant rocky planet shrouded in a thick, hot atmosphere. TOI-270 d ...

Saturn's Moon Titan Could Harbor Life, but Only a Tiny Amount, Study Finds

Apr. 7, 2025 — Despite its uniquely rich inventory of organic molecules, Saturn's largest moon, Titan, may be able to support only a minuscule amount of biomass, if life exists on the moon, according to a study ...

Solar Wave Squeezed Jupiter's Magnetic Shield to Unleash Heat

Apr. 3, 2025 — A solar wind event from 2017 that hit Jupiter and compressed its magnetosphere created a hot region spanning half Jupiter's ...

Solar Cells Made of Moon Dust Could Power Future Space Exploration

Apr. 3, 2025 — The same dirt that clings to astronauts' boots may one day keep their lights on. Researchers created solar cells made out of simulated Moon dust. The cells convert sunlight into energy ...

Martian Dust Could Pose Health Risks to Future Astronauts

Mar. 31, 2025 — Inhaling dust particles from the Red Planet over long periods of time could put humans at risk of developing respiratory issues, thyroid disease and other health ...

Organic Molecules of Unprecedented Size Discovered on Mars

Mar. 24, 2025 — The longest organic molecules identified to date on Mars have recently been detected. These long carbon chains, containing up to 12 consecutive carbon atoms, could exhibit features similar to the ...

Meteorites: A Geologic Map of the Asteroid Belt

Mar. 18, 2025 — Where do meteorites of different type come from? In a review paper, astronomers trace the impact orbit of observed meteorite falls to several previously unidentified source regions in the asteroid ...

Combination of Cosmic Processes Shapes the Size and Location of Sub-Neptunes

Mar. 17, 2025 — A combination of cosmic processes shapes the formation of one of the most common types of planets outside of our solar system, according to a new ...

Webb Telescope Captures Its First Direct Images of Carbon Dioxide Outside Solar System

Mar. 17, 2025 — The James Webb Space Telescope has captured its first direct images of carbon dioxide in a planet outside the solar system in HR 8799, a multiplanet system 130 light-years away that has long been a ...

Age of Upcoming Asteroid Flyby Target

Mar. 17, 2025 — New modeling indicates the main belt asteroid (52246) Donaldjohanson may have formed about 150 million years ago when a larger parent asteroid broke apart; its orbit and spin properties have ...

TOI-1453: Sub-Neptune in System of Two Exoplanets

Mar. 14, 2025 — Astronomers have discovered two exoplanets around TOI-1453, a star about 250 light years away. These two exoplanets, a super-Earth and a sub-Neptune, are common in the galaxy, yet are absent from our ...

Weighing in on a Mars Water Debate

Mar. 13, 2025 — Water once existed in abundance of at the surface of Mars. How much of that water has been stored in the planet's crust is still unclear, according to a new ...

Super-Earths and Mini-Neptunes: More Earth-Like Planets May Exist

Mar. 11, 2025 — A new study presents a compelling new model for the formation of super-Earths and mini-Neptunes -- planets that are 1 to 4 times the size of Earth and among the most common in our galaxy. Using ...

How's the Weather on Mars?

Mar. 6, 2025 — A new study revealed that atmospheric gravity waves play a crucial role in driving latitudinal air currents on Mars, particularly at high altitudes. The findings, based on long-term atmospheric data, ...

The Chances of Anything Coming from Mars

Mar. 5, 2025 — Within the next decade, space agencies plan to bring samples of rock from Mars to Earth for study. Of concern is the possibility these samples contain life, which could have unforeseen consequences. ...

Small and Large Planets Have Significantly Different Upbringings

Mar. 5, 2025 — Studying the orbits of thousands of exoplanets shows that large planets tend to have elliptical orbits, while smaller planets tend to have more circular orbits. This split coincides with several ...

Astronomer Finds Gas Giant Exoplanets Formed Earlier Than Previously Thought

Mar. 5, 2025 — A fresh look at past data reveals that exoplanets with masses similar to Jupiter formed much sooner than previously thought, according to new ...

Beyond Our Solar System: Scientists Identify a New Exoplanet Candidate

Mar. 4, 2025 — The discovery of new exoplanets can help scientists understand how planets form and ...

NASA's Hubble Finds Kuiper Belt Duo May Be Trio

Mar. 4, 2025 — The puzzle of predicting how three gravitationally bound bodies move in space has challenged mathematicians for centuries, and has most recently been popularized in the novel and television show ...

Adsorptive Regolith on Mars Soaks Up Water, Researchers Reveal

Feb. 26, 2025 — Researchers are looking underfoot to uncover the mysterious past of Mars: Martian regoliths in the soil. Their water storage capabilities may help us understand the change in water on Mars over ...

Lunar Trailblazer Blasts Off to Map Water on the Moon

Feb. 25, 2025 — On Wednesday 26 February, a thermal imaging camera blasted off to the Moon as part of NASA's Lunar Trailblazer mission. This aims to map sources of water on the Moon to shed light on the lunar ...

Why Is Mars Red? Scientists May Finally Have the Answer

Feb. 25, 2025 — A new study shows a water-rich mineral could explain the planet's color -- and hint at its wetter, more habitable ...