Planets, Astronomy | featured news

California 7th graders discovered this Martian pit feature at the center of the superimposed red square in this image while participating in a program that enables students to use the camera on NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter.

A vast ocean likely covered one-third of the surface of Mars some 3.5 billion years ago, according to a new study. While the notion of a large, ancient ocean on Mars has been repeatedly proposed and challenged over the past two decades, the research provides further support for the idea of a sustained sea on the Red Planet more than 3 billion years ...

Scientists don't know quite why, but one of Jupiter's two main cloud belts has disappeared -- again.

If NASA's exploration of Mars were summed up in a bumper sticker, it would read: "Follow the water."...

Japan's space agency is launching a mission to Venus to study its weather and hunt for signs of lightning and volcanoes.

President Barack Obama predicted Thursday his new space exploration plans would lead American astronauts to Mars and back in his lifetime, a bold forecast relying on rockets and propulsion still to be imagined and built.

Neptune may have polished off a super-Earth that once roamed the outer solar system and stolen its moon to boot. The brutal deed could explain mysterious heat radiating from the icy planet and the odd orbit of its moon Triton.

Astronomers announced this week they found a water-rich and relatively nearby planet that's similar in size to Earth.

Astronomers have found 32 new planets outside our solar system, adding evidence to the theory that the universe has many places where life could develop....

Completing an orbit in less than an Earth day, planet Wasp-18b should have burned up, according to accepted theory. Scientists have discovered a planet that shouldn't exist. The finding, they say, could alter our understanding of orbital dynamics, a field considered pretty well settled since the time of astronomer Johannes Kepler 400 years ago.