Planetary Science

  1. Planetary Science

    Planet Hunt Strikes Rock: Hot kin of Earth orbits nearby star

    Astronomers have found the closest known cousin to Earth, a solid world just 15 light-years beyond the solar system.

    By Ron Cowen
  2. Planetary Science

    Renegade moon

    Saturn's outlier moon Phoebe didn't coalesce from material near the ringed planet but was captured from the distant Kuiper belt.

    By Ron Cowen
  3. Planetary Science

    High Anxiety: Sudden solar flare highlights space risks

    Measurements of energetic particles from an unusually strong solar flare that pummeled Earth early this year suggest that astronauts traveling or working in space might sometimes need to reach shelter within minutes of a warning.

    By Sid Perkins
  4. Planetary Science

    Mars Polar Lander: Lost but now found?

    A reanalysis of an image taken 5 years ago suggests that planetary scientists have found the remains of the Mars Polar Lander, which vanished minutes before it was supposed to touch down on the Red Planet.

    By Ron Cowen
  5. Planetary Science

    Craft show

    The Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft recently imaged Mars Odyssey and Mars Express, marking the first time that a spacecraft orbiting a planet other than Earth has captured images of other craft circling the same planet.

    By Ron Cowen
  6. Planetary Science

    Roaming Giants: Did migrating planets shape the solar system?

    New simulations suggest that the solar system's four biggest planets were once bunched together, setting up a planetary bowling game that rapidly and violently rearranged the structure of the outer solar system and tossed chunks of debris inward.

    By Ron Cowen
  7. Planetary Science

    Ringing in a new moon

    The Cassini spacecraft has spotted a new moon of Saturn, only the second known to lie within the planet's main rings.

    By Ron Cowen
  8. Planetary Science

    Roving on the Red Planet

    Scientists review the discoveries made by the Mars rovers after nearly 18 months on the Red Planet.

    By Ron Cowen
  9. Planetary Science

    Saturnian moonscape

    Planetary scientists have obtained their closest image yet of Epimetheus, one of Saturn's tiny moons.

    By Ron Cowen
  10. Planetary Science

    Far-out science

    New measurements show that the planetoid Sedna spins more rapidly than earlier observations had suggested.

    By Ron Cowen
  11. Planetary Science

    The Huygens Chronicles

    After several months of painstaking work analyzing data from the Huygens probe, planetary scientists are able to see the surface of Saturn's moon Titan in greater detail than ever before.

    By Ron Cowen
  12. Planetary Science

    Comet mission loses some focus

    A camera aboard the Deep Impact spacecraft, set to fire a projectile into the icy heart of Comet Tempel-1 on July 4, is slightly out of focus.

    By Ron Cowen