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Articles on Solar system

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When it was young, the Sun spun fast – very fast. It would do one rotation in a just one or two Earth days. www.pixabay.com

Curious Kids: does the Sun spin as well as the planets?

Yes, the Sun absolutely spins. In fact, everything in the universe spins. Some things spin faster than the Sun, some are slower and some things spin ‘backwards’.
The spectacular layers of blue haze in Pluto’s atmosphere, captured by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft. NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute

Why Pluto is losing its atmosphere: winter is coming

The dwarf planet Pluto is heading away from the Sun and that’s having a devastating impact on its atmosphere.
Pluto’s ghoulish cousin, 2015 TG387, lurks in the distant reaches of our own Solar System. Illustration by Roberto Molar Candanosa and Scott Sheppard, courtesy of Carnegie Institution for Science.

A Goblin could guide us to a mystery planet thought to exist in the Solar system

Whether you call it Planet X or Planet Nine, talk of another planet lurking in our Solar system won’t go away. So what does the discovery of a new object – nicknamed “The Goblin” – add to the debate?
Enjoying the planets lined up in a row. Derek Bruff/flickr

Five in a row - the planets align in the night sky

The five planets visible to the naked eye since ancient times are putting on a dazzling display this month, in a night-sky dance along with the Moon.
Mars’ south polar cap, as seen from Mars Global Surveyor. Buried beneath, we now know, is a lake of liquid water. NASA/JPL/MSSS

Discovered: a huge liquid water lake beneath the southern pole of Mars

Researchers have found evidence of a large lake of salty water, buried 1.5 kilometres beneath the southern polar ice cap on Mars. So what does that mean for life on the red planet?
NASA’s Cassini spacecraft captures Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, passes in front of the planet and its rings. NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

Capturing the shadow of Saturn’s moon Titan from right here on Earth

Titan is more than a billion kilometres from our Sun but occasionally it’s shadow can be seen here on Earth, with the right technology. That’s what scientists gathered in Western Australia to observe.

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