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From the coldest planets to spacecraft that have exited the Solar System, these little-known facts stump even many professional astronomers.

The classic picture of Jupiter’s great rocky core might be entirely wrong.

The existence of another watery world in the outer solar system may offer clues to how such seas form — and hope for another spot to search for life.

NASA’s Juno mission, in orbit around Jupiter, occasionally flies past its innermost large moon: Io. The volcanic activity is unbelievable.

If there’s life lurking on the moons of Saturn and Jupiter, could our instruments even detect it?

The structure of our Solar System has been known for centuries. When we finally started finding exoplanets, they surprised everyone.

Could life be widespread throughout the cosmos, in the subsurface oceans of ice-covered worlds? NASA’s Europa Clipper mission investigates.

For now, our Solar System’s eight planets are all safe, and relatively stable. Billions of years from now, everything will be different.

Planets can be Earth-like or Neptune-like, but only rarely are in between. This hot, Saturn-like planet hints at a solution to this puzzle.

MIT Scientist Jason Soderblom describes how the NASA mission will study the geology and composition of the surface of Jupiter’s water-rich moon and assess its astrobiological potential.

In the largest star-forming region close to Earth, JWST found hundreds of planetary-mass objects. How do these free-floating planets form?

As planets with too many volatiles and too little mass orbit their parent stars, their atmospheres photoevaporate, spelling doom for some.

The outer planets’ clouds hide the weirdness within.

On December 9, 2023, Halley’s Comet reached aphelion: its farthest point from the Sun. As it returns, here are 10 facts you should know.

While Saturn and its moons all appear faint and cloudy to JWST, Saturn’s rings are the star of the show. Here’s the big scientific reason.

Since mid-2022, JWST has been showing us how the Universe grows up, from planets to galaxies and more. So, what’s its biggest find of all?

Finding a tiny planet around bright stars dozens or hundreds of light-years from Earth is extremely difficult.

On Earth, microbial growth is common in lava tubes no matter the location and climate, whether it’s ice-volcano interactions in Iceland or hot, sand-floored lava tubes in Saudi Arabia.

In our Solar System, even the two brightest planets frequently align in our skies. But only rarely is it spectacularly visible from Earth.

Barnard’s star, the closest singlet star system to ours, has long been a target for planet-hunters. We’ve finally confirmed it: they exist!

The last infant stars are finishing their formation inside these pillars of gas. The evaporation of those columns is almost complete.

65 million years ago, a massive asteroid struck Earth. Not only did Jupiter not stop it, but it probably caused the impact itself.

Newborn stars are surrounded only by a featureless disk. Debris disks persist for hundreds of millions of years. So when do planets form?

Featuring SpaceX’s “Mechazilla,” a first-of-its-kind spacewalk, and more.

More than two years after JWST began science operations, our Universe now looks very different. Here are its biggest science contributions.

The secret ingredient is violence, and it just might indicate that “moonmoons” aren’t as uncommon as most astronomers think.

This research team is working out how to detect extraterrestrial cells in the liquid water ocean hidden beneath Enceladus’s icy crust.

Newton thought that gravitation would happen instantly, propagating at infinite speeds. Einstein showed otherwise; gravity isn’t instant.

The giant impact theory suggests our Moon was formed from proto-Earth getting a Mars-sized strike. An exoplanet system shows it’s plausible.

Mercury, Venus, and Mars are all uni-plate planets, and may always have been. Here’s what’s known about why Earth, uniquely, has plate tectonics.