Out of the four rocky planets in our Solar System, only Earth presently has plate tectonics. But billions of years ago, Venus had them, too.
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In the early stages of our Solar System, there were three life-friendly planets: Venus, Earth, and Mars. Only Earth thrived. Here’s why.
Like Mars today, Venus used to be a sci-fi superstar. Recent discoveries could re-ignite our interest in Earth’s “evil twin.”
From the coldest planets to spacecraft that have exited the Solar System, these little-known facts stump even many professional astronomers.
In 2023, data from the James Webb Space Telescope soured hopes that TRAPPIST-1 c had an atmosphere. That disappointment might have been premature.
In our Solar System, even the two brightest planets frequently align in our skies. But only rarely is it spectacularly visible from Earth.
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.
Venus Life Finder could launch as early as 2023.
Even at its faintest, Venus always outshines every other star and planet that’s visible from Earth, and then some!
Although early Earth was a molten hellscape, once it cooled, life arose almost immediately. That original chain of life remains unbroken.
Earth is the Solar System’s only known inhabited planet. Could Venus, if its phosphine signal is real, be our second world with life?
Until recently, we were only able to view Venus’s surface with radar or by landing on the planet. It was believed that Venus’s surface was entirely obscured by clouds; NASA’s Parker Solar Probe proved otherwise.
For now, our Solar System’s eight planets are all safe, and relatively stable. Billions of years from now, everything will be different.
Until the Apollo missions, we had no idea how the moon got here, just a series of educated guesses. They rewrote the story of the moon’s origins.
NASA’s Juno mission, in orbit around Jupiter, occasionally flies past its innermost large moon: Io. The volcanic activity is unbelievable.
Carnivorous plants fascinate as much now as when their gruesome diet was first discovered.
The structure of our Solar System has been known for centuries. When we finally started finding exoplanets, they surprised everyone.
Whenever someone waxes poetic about terraforming alien worlds, it’s worth taking a moment to consider the ethical implications of the proposal.
The number of planets that could support life may be far greater than previously thought, a recent discovery suggests.
Anesthesia causes animals and humans to lose consciousness. A study found it has a similar effect on Venus flytraps.
Despite being the closest planet to the Sun, Mercury “only” reaches 800 °F at its hottest. Venus is always hotter, even at night.
In the night sky for March of 2022, only stars and the Moon, not planets, will greet you. The real show, however, arrives just before dawn.
Mars, the red planet, was a world we knew almost nothing about until our first spacecraft visited it. In just ~50 years, how far we’ve come!
There’s an extremely good chance that there is, or at least was, life on Mars. But is it native to Mars, or did it originate from Earth?
Venus has far more carbon dioxide in its atmosphere than Earth, which turned our sister planet into an inferno. But how did it get there?
No planet enters retrograde more frequently than Mercury, which does so 3-4 times each year. Here’s the scientific explanation for why.
The largest hazardous asteroid found in the last 8 years showcases a little-known class of planet-killers. And we’re woefully unprepared.
No matter how you define the end, including the demise of humanity, all life, or even the planet itself, our ultimate destruction awaits.
The Source Family, a radical 1970s utopian commune, still impacts what we eat today.