Solar System

One of the strangest comets in the solar system has been erupting with unpredictable bright outbursts since late September and nobody knows why.

The detection of interstellar objects in the solar system has raised an interesting question: How much of the solar system is made of foreign material?

A few decades from now, humanity could get an up-close look at a comet blazing to life for the first time.

Scientists have used a new method to analyse the composition of ancient grains in meteorites with unprecedented accuracy to shed light on their mysterious origin.

The BepiColombo mission captured its first up-close look at the planet Mercury in a flyby, revealing a rocky world covered with craters.

About 4.5 billion years ago, the solar system was just a giant, spinning cloud of gas and dust. Today, it's flat. Here's how that happened.

How rare is our solar system? In the 30 years or so since planets were first discovered orbiting stars other than our sun, we have found that planetary systems are common in the galaxy.

Comets from other star systems, such as 2019 Borisov, visit the sun's neighborhood more frequently than scientists had thought, a new study suggests.

When we talk about amazing geological features, we often limit ourselves to those on Earth.

The newfound asteroid 2021 PH27 completes one lap around our star every 113 Earth days. That's the shortest orbital period of any known solar system object except the planet Mercury.

Far-flung spacecraft are helping us learn about the solar system's edge.

The search for extraterrestrial technology is "daring to look through new telescopes."

NASA has picked SpaceX's heavy-lift Falcon Heavy rocket to launch the Europa Clipper mission to Jupiter's icy moon.

NASA's Juno spacecraft is "listening" in on radio emissions from Jupiter's volcanic moon Io, allowing researchers to discover what triggers the strange radio waves.

An amateur astronomer has discovered a previously unknown moon around Jupiter after poring over old telescope images, a major first.

A dazzling new animation puts you aboard NASA's Juno spacecraft during its epic flybys last month of Jupiter and the huge moon Ganymede.

A giant comet found far out in the solar system may be 1,000 times more massive than a typical comet, making it potentially the largest ever found in modern times.

The researchers created a computer model to predict the ways the planets would scatter, finding that slight tweaks to starting positions lead to vastly different outcomes

Scientists used solar wind to make the first 3D map of the heliosphere, which protects Earth from deadly cosmic radiation.