Our Solar System is odd because it has no Super-Earth. But what would happen if it did? Simulations show that we're better off without one.

Neptune and Uranus have long been neglected when it comes to solar system exploration. Many astronomers think that is a shame, as these two planets are particularly weird outliers among the bodies that orbit the Sun. Uranus, for example, the seventh planet from our Sun, has a unique tilt that makes it appear to spin sideways, orbiting the Sun like a rolling ball while circled by nine, dense rings. Both Uranus and Neptune may also have diamond rain in their atmospheres.

This discovery offers new insights into the water history of Mars and the possibility of ancient life on the Red Planet.

Jupiter is a superstar in our solar system. It’s the biggest, it’s wonderfully gassy, and it now has the most documented moons, clocking in at 92 natural satellites. Its new count became official on January 20, 2023, when the Minor Planet Center recognized the last of a batch of 10 newly identified moons. Jupiter is stealing the title from Saturn, which only has 83 documented moons.

Recent telescope data revealed that a small planet in the far reaches of our solar system has a dense ring round it. And scientists are baffled as to why. The planet, Quaoar, is one of roughly 3,000 small planets that orbit the sun beyond Neptune, and at 690 miles (1,110-kilometers) wide, it’s about the seventh largest, with Pluto and Eris ranking as the biggest.

In July 1969, as the Apollo 11 astronauts prepared to trek to the moon, the Nixon Administration prepped some worst-case-scenario remarks in case this risky mission became deadly — a distinct possibility. Nixon's prepared statement, which was not widely publicized until 1999, was grim. It thanked the astronauts for their brave sacrifice, preceded by a clergyman who would've adopted the same procedure as a burial at sea: commending their souls to "the deepest of the deep," and concluding with the Lord's Prayer.

Astronomers have discovered 12 new moons around Jupiter, putting the total count at a record-breaking 92. That's more than any other planet in our solar system. Saturn, the one-time leader, comes in a close second with 83 confirmed moons.

Astronomers have discovered 12 new moons around Jupiter, putting the total count at a record-breaking 92. That's more than any other planet in our solar system.

Using hundreds of high-resolution photos of Mars surface taken by the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Jan Fröjdman made this stunning video which depicts what a flyover of the planet might look like. (From 2017)

A team of astrophysicists has discovered a binary pair of ultra-cool dwarfs so close together that they look like a single star. They’re remarkable because they only take 20.5 hours to orbit each other, meaning their year is less than one Earth Day. They’re also much older than similar systems.

This futuristic dream-like scenario is being sold to us as a real scientific possibility, with billionaires planning to move humanity to Mars in the near future. For decades, children have grown up with the daring movie adventures of intergalactic explorers and the untold habitable worlds they find. Many of the highest-grossing films are set on fictional planets, with paid advisors keeping the science ‘realistic’. At the same time, narratives of humans trying to survive on a post-apocalyptic Earth have also become mainstream.

The astronomical phenomenon gave skywatchers a good view of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn with the naked eye.

A new study shows that some tidally-locked explanets around red dwarf stars could be partly habitable. But the land-ocean ratio is critical.

For the first time, astronomers have spotted an exoplanet whose orbit is decaying around an evolved, or older, host star. The stricken world appears destined to spiral closer and closer to its maturing star until collision and ultimate obliteration. The discovery offers new insights into the long-winded process of planetary orbital decay by providing the first look at a system at this late stage of evolution.

A reversal of thermodynamics could allow life to exist on planets orbiting a black hole, as seen in the film Interstellar.

You thought Venus was hot? While the planet does have an average surface temperature of nearly 900 degrees Fahrenheit (500 degrees Celsius), there's an exoplanet just 40 light-years away from Earth that has a surface temperature a scorching three times hotter: 3,600 degrees Fahrenheit (2,000 degrees Celsius). Now, new data has led scientists to develop a theory of how this "hell planet" came to be.

In Dinner on Mars, food scientists Lenore Newman and Evan Fraser investigate the technologies—and mindset—needed to set the Martian table.

Scientists have been struggling for decades to answer a question an inquisitive child might ask: Where did the moon come from? Now, the most high resolution computer simulation ever made shows it could have been formed in a matter of hours following a collision between a proto-Earth and a Mars-sized orbital intruder.

For someone who wants his own species to go extinct, Les Knight is a remarkably happy-go-lucky human. He has regularly hosted meteor shower parties with rooftop fireworks. He organized a long-running game of nude croquet in his backyard, which, it should be mentioned, is ringed by 20-foot-tall laurel hedges. Even Tucker Carlson proved no match for Mr. Knight’s ebullience.

Mars was drenched by a rain of water-rich asteroids.