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.
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Native American tribes have called the May moon the flower moon for centuries. The name even inspired a best-selling novel and film.
The full moon in June is known as the strawberry moon. It's a sweet name, but how did the strawberry moon get its moniker, and what else is it called?
There are eight phases in the lunar cycle and the moon is in one of them every night. What are these phases of the moon?
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The solar system's largest planet will pass closest to Earth at the same time it's at opposition. That means it will be the biggest and brightest it's been in the sky in decades.
In 2022, the full moon, called the hunter's moon, will occur Oct. 9. Why is it called that and when can you see it?
The four Jovian planets are officially designated as gas (and/or ice) giants. Which planets are they and what makes them so unique?
Terrestrial planets include the four closest to our sun, including Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. What else makes these celestial bodies terrestrial planets?
By Mitch Ryan
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Move over Saturn. There are other planets in the solar system surrounded by ring systems.
By Mitch Ryan
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?
The gegenschein, "faint light" in German, occurs under very specific astronomical conditions when the sun reaches the exact opposite of Earth from wherever you're stargazing.
Astronomers at HaleakalÄ Observatory in Hawaii noted a bright X-ray emission in 2018, which persisted for three weeks and glowed ten times more brightly than previously studied supernovas, but are just now beginning to understand it.
Many people dream of climbing Mount Everest, but what if you could scale the highest mountain in the solar system? That one is more than twice as tall as Everest! So, where is it?
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If you imagine the eight major planets in a single line stretching out from the sun, this alignment occurs roughly every 13.4 trillion years. And our solar system is 4.5 billion years old.
The Tau Herculids meteor shower was made of debris from the broken comet SW3 and produced a lot of shooting stars, but not quite the meteor shower that was hoped for.
The idea behind the "fake" moon is to provide extra illumination to Chengdu, a city in China's Sichuan province. What could possibly go wrong?
By Mark Mancini
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After cruising 300 million miles and spending seven months in space, the InSight spacecraft successfully touched down on Mars' surface. How awesome is that?
Some scientists think the existence of plate tectonics could be a prerequisite for life. So do they exist on other planets outside of Earth?
By Mark Mancini
Once upon a time, the sun caught an interstellar orphan and adopted it as its own. It's named 2015 BZ 509.
To define the location of objects in the sky, astronomers utilize a system of celestial coordinates, which extends latitude and longitude from Earth's surface into space.
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No worries though. Jupiter, Neptune or Uranus could create their own beautiful, bright ring display in the distant future.