The Solar System
In the Solar System Channel, you can explore the planets and celestial objects around our own sun. Learn about topics such as Mars, Jupiter and the Moon.
Constellation Pictures
How to Find Orion's Belt in the Night Sky
Radio Telescope Image Gallery
How do I build a telescope at home?
Shooting the Stars as an Astrophotographer
What's the Brightest Star in the Sky? Depends on the Season
The Largest Star in the Universe Is 1,700x Bigger Than Our Sun
Twinkle, Twinkle: The Ultimate Stars Quiz
Learn More / Page 3
As the search for Planet Nine wears on, and astronomers have yet to get so much as a glimpse of it, researchers are pondering what else the object might be.
The Geminid meteor shower is one of the year's stronger displays in terms of number and size of meteors. When's the best time to see it?
The moon has seen a lot in its 4.5 million years of life, and this detailed geologic map serves as testament.
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In 1953, CalTech geochemist Clair Patterson came up with an estimate for Earth's age that still holds today.
Everyone's heard of the blue moon and the harvest moon, but every other full moon of the year has a name, too. What are their names, and when do these moons occur?
Researchers at the Zwicky Transient Facility have found an asteroid in Earth's orbit. And this one has the shortest year yet.
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Did you know that a moon can leave its orbit around a large planet and go out on its own?
How galaxies get their shapes and evolve is widely debated.
By Mark Mancini & Yara Simón
It's the first interstellar rock we've ever found!
It wasn't quite as loud as you might imagine.
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The term "blue moon" dates back to at least the 16th century. Since then, it's had several different definitions, many of which are contradictory. So what's a blue moon today?
By Mark Mancini
No worries though. Jupiter, Neptune or Uranus could create their own beautiful, bright ring display in the distant future.
Every April, the Lyrid meteor shower fills the sky with shooting stars. Here's how to see them in 2023.
By Mark Mancini
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The wait is over. NASA confirms Mars is seismically active.
The idea of planet Nibiru has captivated doomsday prophets and conspiracy theorists for decades, but nobody has proven its existence. What's the deal?
By Mark Mancini
Rovers are getting some practice hunting for microbes here on Earth before they head to Mars in 2020.
What if your job were to protect life in the galaxy at all costs? That's exactly what the folks manning NASA's Planetary Protection office do, and bunny suits are just the beginning.
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One tragic, moonless night in April 1912, the Titanic slid into the depths of the North Atlantic Ocean -- for good. A crew of Texas State academics suggested that Earth's favorite satellite may have some explaining to do.
Pluto is relatively round and orbits the Sun. So, why doesn't it qualify as a planet?
Since the 1960s, we've been captivated by the planet Mars. How different is our neighbor, and what have we learned about the most explored planet?
A total solar eclipse is a rare event that can be an amazing thing to witness. Learn about solar eclipses and how to observe one safely.
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Where I live it is pretty common to see "shooting stars" -- streaks of light in the sky at night. How big is a shooting star? Do they land on earth or do they burn up? Do they land on the ground as meteorites?
The sun warms our planet every day, provides the light by which we see and is necessary for life on Earth. But what is it exactly, and what will happen when it burns itself out?