Space
- Planetary Science
‘The Martian’ is entertaining science fiction rooted in fact
With NASA’s help, filmmakers made story of astronaut stranded on Mars believable.
- Planetary Science
Enceladus’ ocean goes global
A subsurface liquid water ocean envelops Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus.
- Planetary Science
Mars’ ionosphere mystery explained
A decades-old disagreement between the Viking landers and spacecraft buzzing around Mars might come down to what time of day each was investigating the Red Planet’s ionosphere.
- Planetary Science
Satellite captures double solar eclipse in action
NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory caught a rare double eclipse as both Earth and the moon partially blocked the sun.
- Planetary Science
Asteroid impacts may explain Venus’ missing oxygen
Asteroid impacts on Venus might have helped sequester oxygen left behind when Earth’s sister planet lost its water, new simulations show.
- Planetary Science
The first spacecraft buzzed a comet today in 1985
Thirty years ago, a spacecraft became the first to fly past a comet.
- Planetary Science
New Pluto photos show unprecedented detail
New images from the New Horizons spacecraft show off Pluto and Charon in unprecedented detail.
- Planetary Science
Ceres’ mysterious bright spots come into focus
The Dawn spacecraft gets its best look yet at bright spots on Ceres.
- Planetary Science
The sad magnetic state of the solar system’s rocky worlds
While a strong magnetic shield protects Earth from the sun’s occasional outbursts, the solar system’s other rocky planets are mostly defenseless.
- Planetary Science
The wait for more Pluto data is almost over
As New Horizons prepares to tell us everything it learned about Pluto, fans of the dwarf planet take a crack at imagining what the spacecraft saw.
- Astronomy
First known exoplanets have few counterparts
The first known exoplanets were discovered around pulsars — probably one of the least likely places to have been found, astronomers now say.
- Astronomy
Two stars were once considered coldest known
Two stars once thought to be the coldest known are actually scorching compared with some truly frigid brown dwarfs.
