Planets
- Earth
Earth’s rock collection hints at how to search for life elsewhere
A new way to sort minerals focuses on how they formed. It provides new clues about Earth’s crystal past and how to find life on other planets.
- Planets
Scientists Say: Habitable Zone
The habitable zone is the region around a star where temperatures could be right for worlds to host liquid water.
- Space
Let’s learn about surviving a trip to Mars
Getting to and surviving on the Red Planet will take lots of innovation.
- Planets
Noises sound totally different on Mars than on Earth. Here’s why
The Perseverance rover recorded the sound of laser pulses on Mars. Scientists used those recordings to determine the Martian speeds of sound.
- Space
Ancient volcanoes may have left ice at the moon’s poles
Volcanic eruptions billions of years ago may have produced several temporary atmospheres on the moon that held water vapor.
- Planets
The InSight lander has caught a large ‘earthquake’ on Mars
This magnitude 5 quake is offering scientists a peek at what’s going on beneath the Martian surface.
- Planets
Analyze This: Some 5,000 planets orbit stars other than our sun
A new cache of confirmed exoplanet discoveries marks a milestone in planets found beyond our solar system.
- Space
Explainer: All about orbits
A handful of rules can describe the route some object repeatedly takes around another in space. Calculating that path, however, can be quite complex.
- Earth
Scientists Say: Atmosphere
An atmosphere is an envelope of gas around a planet, dwarf planet or moon.
- Planets
Mercury’s surface may be studded with diamonds
Billions of years of meteorite impacts may have transformed much of Mercury's graphite crust into precious gemstones.
- Planets
Let’s learn about Pluto
Once known as a pipsqueak planet, Pluto is now the solar system’s best known dwarf planet.
- Planets
No, organic molecules alone don’t point to life on Mars
These carbon-based molecules, found in a meteorite, may reflect merely a mixing of water and minerals on the Red Planet over billions of years.
