All stories in solar system
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This nearly inexplicable exoplanet has the density of cotton candy
The exoplanet WASP-107b may be as large as Jupiter, but this super-puff planet only contains one-tenth as much mass as the ...
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Earth has been habitable for billions of years — simulations show it was 'just luck'
It took evolution 3 or 4 billion years to produce Homo sapiens. If the climate had completely failed just once in that time ...
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New stunning HD images show the largest canyon in our solar system
Ten times longer than the Grand Canyon, and three times as deep, the Valles Marineris (The Mariner Valley) cuts ...
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Newly discovered Jupiter-like world could be the long-sought 'Planet X'
When the Hubble Space Telescope set its sights toward the binary star system HD 106906, astronomers found a world that could ...
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Look, human, it’s the first photo of planets orbiting a sun 300 light years away
The planetary system TYC 8998–760–1, sitting 300 light years from Earth, shows a pair of massive worlds orbiting ...
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Mysterious cosmic ray electrons have been spotted for the first time
Just beyond the reach of charged particles from our Sun (which is, in some ways, the edge of our solar ...
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Jupiter and Saturn will be the closest they’ve been in 800 years — here’s how to spot them on Dec. 21
The holiday season holds a special gift, as skygazers on Earth will be treated to a great conjunction of the planets ...
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Returning asteroid sample can help crack secrets about how the solar system formed
What is your idea of an asteroid? Many people think of them as potato-shaped, inert, and perhaps rather dull, pock-marked ...
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A Mars megaflood may be evidence of ancient waterways — and maybe life
Long ago, when our solar system was young, Mars was a world teeming with water. Researchers at Cornell University have now ...
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Jupiter's moon Europa glows in the dark — and that may tell us what's on it
Laboratory experiments have re-created the surface of Europa, one of the four large moons of Jupiter, with a surprising result ...
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A dark and mysterious 'rogue planet' has been discovered — and it looks a lot like Earth
Most known planets orbit a star. These planets, including Earth, benefit from the star’s warmth and light. And it is the ...
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Every planet in our Solar System will be visible this week — here’s how to spot them
All the planets in the Solar System are visible in the night sky this week, making a beautiful sight for stargazers. Even ...
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This ice giant shaped our solar system — here’s how
Did a massive ice giant planet once orbit in the outer solar system? And what could evidence for such a world teach ...
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This Martian asteroid might explain why planets are wet
Water covers around three-quarters of Earth, and it can be found on other worlds of the Solar System, including sub-surface ...
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Volcanos on Jupiter’s moon are painting its surface with beautiful colors
For the first time ever, astronomers were able to see the effects of volcanic activity on the atmosphere of the innermost ...
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NASA discovers the Moon is wet — now scientists want to go back
The Moon was for a long time considered to be bone dry, with analyses of returned lunar samples from the Apollo missions ...
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New AI-powered sensor measures starlight distortion to help discover new planets
The "photonic wavefront sensor" helps correct the distortion of starlight caused by observing planets through optical telescopes. ...
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Can there be life on Venus? Here's what scientists are doing to find out
On Sept. 14, 2020, a new planet was added to the list of potentially habitable worlds in the Solar System: Venus. Phosphine, ...
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The 4 most promising worlds for alien life in the solar system
The Earth’s biosphere contains all the known ingredients necessary for life as we know it. Broadly speaking these are liquid ...
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Phosphorus surrounding distant stars could be a sign of life-friendly worlds
Far from our solar system, phosphorus surrounding distant stars could be a telltale sign of worlds friendly to extraterrestrial ...
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There's an asteroid heading for Earth — but scientists tell us not to worry
Social media around the world lit up over the weekend, discussing the possibility that an asteroid (known as 2018 VP₁) ...
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Astronomers think our Sun may have a long lost twin
A twin star of the Sun may have formed along with our solar system, a new study from the Center for Astrophysics finds. If ...
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A supernova may have caused Earth’s mass extinction 359 million years ago
The cause of the Devonian period extinction 359 million years ago, ranked as one of the five great extinctions of life ...
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Red giant star Betelgeuse dimmed because it ‘sneezed,’ astronomers explain
The dimming of Betelgeuse seen at the end of 2019 and the start of 2020 explained — the red giant star “sneezed.” Betelgeuse ...
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Dwarf planet Ceres is covered in deep salty oceans, spacecraft finds
Ceres is rich with water, the Dawn spacecraft finds. What can this mean for finding life on other worlds? Ceres is ...
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Revolutionary technique lets astronomers find a huge planet that’s just like Saturn
The VLBA radio telescope network has discovered a massive exoplanet — similar to Saturn — orbiting a nearby star. ...
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Scientists: What if black holes had a safe zone where little planets could live? Let's call them 'blanets'
Every once in a while the scientific community comes up with a discovery so important that it immediately changes the course ...
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Asteroids may be the reason Earth is covered in water
The origin of water on Earth has long been a contested question — water forms in the course of many chemical reactions, ...
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The Solar Orbiter just snapped the closest-ever pictures of the Sun
The Solar orbiter just produced the closest pictures ever taken of the Sun, revealing our parent star in stunning detail. These ...
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Colonizing our solar system will make our species very hard to eliminate
The human future in the cosmos could be all but limitless, if we don’t destroy ourselves first. The same would be true ...
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Will we ever find Planet 9? The mystery that could lie at the edge of our solar system
Planet nine may be orbiting far from the Sun, at the edge of our solar system. Astronomers, seeing odd irregularities in ...
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The Neowise comet passes Earth on July 22 — and you can see it with your own naked eyes
Neowise is the first bright comet to be visible with the naked eye from the northern hemisphere since the mid-1990s. Another ...
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Where is the center of the solar system?
If somebody asks you where the center of the solar system is, you would probably say “the sun.” The orrery shows ...
