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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Every April, the Lyrid meteor shower fills the sky with shooting stars. Here's how to see them in 2023.
By Mark Mancini
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
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Rovers are getting some practice hunting for microbes here on Earth before they head to Mars in 2020.
Scientists are continually discovering more moons orbiting the outer planets, particularly Saturn and Jupiter. Just how many moons does Jupiter have?
It's a celestial gift in the middle of August. Just look up for a spectacular sight.
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Jupiter has been notoriously bad about revealing any water deep in its thick atmosphere. That's changing though.
The August 2023 full moon is known as the sturgeon moon. This year, it's also a supermoon and will be followed by a blue moon at the end of the month!
Back in 2006, the International Astronomical Union decided to demote Pluto to the status of a dwarf planet. A historical study challenges that designation.
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The Mars solar conjunction occurs every two years and forces NASA to stop communicating with assets on the Red Planet. So what's the deal?
Early dark energy, a form of dark energy that may have existed a few hundred thousand years after the big bang, could help clarify the universe's rate of expansion. But its existence hasn't been proven.
After Viking 1 captured images of what looked like a face on Mars, the public began to speculate. Had Martians carved a colossus, or was there another answer?
The only thing that's lurking in the shadows during a lunar eclipse is the moon. When Earth's shadow blocks sunlight from directly illuminating a full moon, you're witnessing a lunar eclipse.
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Although other planets have rings, none are as spectacular as Saturn's. What makes the planet's stratified rings, and how did they get there in the first place?
Until recently, most people assumed that if Mars had liquid water, it no longer did and hadn't for quite some time. But scientists have recently noticed some anomalies in photos of Mars that may suggest there is water. Could there be life, too?
By Sarah Dowdey & Robert Lamb
It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a supermoon! Aside from being bigger and brighter than a regular moon, does a supermoon affect anything on Earth?
The European Space Agency's Gaia satellite observatory has created a 3-D model of the Milky Way - and beyond! - that charts more than a billion stars.
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Say hello to the newly discovered TRAPPIST-1 system, which is just 39 light-years away and filled with seven Earth-like planets.
The rings of Saturn, Uranus and Neptune may be remnants of smaller planets destroyed long ago by the gas giants' powerful gravity.
And solving that issue could go a long way toward making our planetary neighbor habitable.
The sun's atmosphere is actually hotter than its surface, even though you'd assume the surface is what generates all that heat. How does that work?
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Saturn's largest moon Titan is the only other celestial body we know of that has liquid lakes on its surface. NASA has just captured some amazing footage of clouds.
The space telescope's ultraviolet observations come days before the Juno space probe will arrive to orbit the gas giant's polar regions.