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Solar System

Our solar system is filled with planets, asteroids, comets, the sun and more, making it a wealth of discoveries waiting to be found. See the latest discoveries from across our solar system here. 

Related topics: Earth, Mercury, Venus, Mars, asteroids, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, the moon, comets

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Jupiter's volcanic moon Io boasts an atmosphere made from sulfur dioxide gas — when the satellite is in sunlight. For the first time, researchers have observed the atmosphere during the moon's daily pass through Jupiter's shadow, watching that atmosphere temporarily freeze and collapse.

Images: 10 incredible volcanoes in our solar system

By James Romero, All About Space magazine

These violent openings are windows into the inner workings and origins of our neighboring planets and their moons.

The evolution of a solar campfire and its magnetic field as generated by a computer simulation.

Mysterious heating of sun's corona powered by solar 'campfires,' study suggests

By Tereza Pultarova

The mysterious heating of the sun’s corona might be powered by miniature solar flares dubbed 'campfires,' discovered by the European-US Solar Orbiter mission last year, a new study suggests.

An artist's depiction of cosmic rays hitting the heliopause surrounding our solar system.

Small NASA rocket will study boundary of interstellar space

By Elizabeth Howell

For a few brief minutes, a suborbital rocket from NASA has an ambitious plan to seek out particles from interstellar space.

Pluto's famous "heart," as seen by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft during its 2015 flyby of the dwarf planet.

NASA's New Horizons Pluto spacecraft is still exploring, 50 AU from the sun

By Mike Wall

New Horizons is about to reach some very rarefied space, but don't expect the NASA probe to rest on its considerable laurels.

The Milky Way galaxy shines over the Chilean Chajnantor plateau in this photo by European Southern Observatory astrophotographer Petr Horálek.

Astronomers find the 'safest place' to live in the Milky Way

By Mara Johnson-Groh

Astronomers have searched the entire Milky Way to identify the safest places to live. It turns out, we're in a pretty good spot.

An artist's impression of what the surface of the interstellar comet 2I/Borisov might look like.

Interstellar interloper 2I/Borisov may be the most pristine comet ever observed

By Charles Q. Choi

The first known interstellar comet to visit our solar system may be the most pristine ever found, never passing near a star until visiting our own, researchers say.

An artist's concept of the 'Oumuamua interstellar object as a pancake-shaped disk. A new study suggests it was once part of a Pluto-like exoplanet.

Interstellar object 'Oumuamua is a pancake-shaped chunk of a Pluto-like planet

By Charles Q. Choi

'Oumuamua, the first known visitor from interstellar space, was likely a pancake-shaped chip off a Pluto-like world.

Artist's illustration of Planet Nine, a world about 10 times more massive than Earth that may lie undiscovered in the far outer solar system.

Planet 9 probably doesn't exist, new paper argues

By Rafi Letzter

Does the solar system really have a big, dark ninth planet drifting somewhere far beyond the orbit of Neptune? A new paper argues that Planet 9 is a statistical mirage.

China's Tianwen-1 Mars orbiter captured this view of the Red Planet as it entered orbit around the planet on Feb. 10, 2021.

China's Tianwen-1 Mars probe captures epic video of Red Planet during orbital arrival

By Andrew Jones

China has released epic video footage from the Tianwen-1 spacecraft as it made a close approach to Mars this week.

This artist’s illustration imagines what the distant object nicknamed “Farfarout” might look like in the outer reaches of our solar system. The most distant object yet discovered in our solar system, Farfarout is 132 astronomical units from the sun, which is 132 times farther from the sun than Earth is.

'Farfarout' is officially the most distant object in our solar system

By Elizabeth Howell

Astronomers have now collected enough additional data to confirm the existence of Farfarout and nail down its orbit.

NASA's Parker Solar Probe spotted six different planets on June 7, 2020, with the sun out of frame to the left.

A string of planets in our solar system sparkles in photos from 3 different sun probes

By Elizabeth Howell

Turns out sungazing is not the only thing NASA's solar spacecraft do.

A close-up photo of part of Mars' Valles Marineris, the single largest canyon in the solar system.

Largest canyon in the solar system revealed in stunning new images

By Brandon Specktor

Mars' Valles Marineris is nearly 10 times as long as the Grand Canyon and three times as deep, but nobody knows how it formed.

The strange bright spots of Occator Crater on the dwarf planet Ceres are unmistakable in this spectacular photo by NASA's Dawn spacecraft taken on Oct. 17, 2016 and released on Nov. 18 as Dawn moves into a higher orbit.

Mysterious asteroid the size of a dwarf planet is lurking in our solar system

By Rafi Letzter

There's a giant asteroid somewhere out there in the solar system, and it hurled a big rock at Earth that left behind meteorites unlike any scientists had ever seen.

Diagram showing our solar system (sizes and distances not to scale).

How did the solar system form?

By Paul Sutter

The formation of the solar system is a challenging puzzle for modern astronomy and a terrific tale of extreme forces operating over immense timescales. Let's dig in.

An artist's depiction of the solar system as it appears today.

Will our solar system survive the death of our sun?

By Paul Sutter

Our sun's death is a long way off — about 4.5 billion years, give or take — but someday it's going to happen, and what then for our solar system?

An artist's depiction of the Enceladus Orbilander mission concept.

Where to next in the outer solar system? Scientists have big ideas to explore icy moons and more.

By Meghan Bartels

If you had a few billion dollars and some of the most talented space scientists and engineers in the world, where would you go?