Planets

  1. Planets

    Early solar system may have slung giant mud balls

    The first asteroids may have been great balls of mud. That could solve some puzzling traits of meteorites.

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  2. Planets

    Small, distant worlds are either big Earths or little Neptunes

    The Kepler space telescope data are in. They split Earth-like exoplanets into two groups and reveal 10 new rocky planets in the ‘Goldilocks’ zone.

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  3. Planets

    Jupiter may be the solar system’s oldest planet

    Jupiter’s early existence may explain the odd arrangement of planets in the solar system, a new study suggests.

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  4. Planets

    Hot, hot planet sets sizzling new record

    Astronomers have discovered an odd new exoplanet. Called KELT 9b, is the hottest non-star known.

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  5. Planets

    Jupiter gets surprisingly complex new portrait

    NASA’s Juno spacecraft has sent back unexpected details about Jupiter, giving scientists their first close-up of this gas giant.

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  6. Planets

    Scientists Say: Eclipse

    How the sun, moon and Earth line up determines whether there’s a solar or lunar eclipse.

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  7. Planets

    How Earth got its moon

    How did our moon form? Scientists are still debating the answer. It may be the result of some one big impact with Earth — or perhaps many small ones.

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  8. Planets

    Analyze This: The masses of planets

    Scientists discovered a solar system with planets that are similar in size and mass to Earth. Using data, we take a closer look at that similarity.

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  9. Planets

    Scientists Say: Dwarf planet

    Dwarf planets are distinct from the full-size models. A little too small, they also have a lot of space stuff filling their path around the sun.

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  10. Planets

    Scientists Say: Goldilocks zone

    Not too hot, not too cold. Just right. This is the region around a star where water could be a liquid, instead of a solid or gas.

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  11. Planets

    New solar system found to have 7 Earth-size planets

    A neighboring star system hosts seven Earth-like planets. Especially surprising: Three of those planets appear to reside in a zone that could support life as we know it.

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  12. Space

    Cool Jobs: Probing Pluto

    The New Horizons mission captivated the world as it flew by Pluto. Here are some of the people who made that possible.

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