NASA
An instrument on the Europa Clipper mission might be able to detect biological cells from space.
NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribben
The mission provided details about how to deflect an asteroid should one threaten Earth in future.
Scientists have spotted a Jupiter-like planet surviving the death of its star.
Credit: W. M. Keck Observatory/Adam Makarenko
For the first time ever, astronomers have astrophysical evidence that Jupiter and many other planets will survive the death of the Sun.
Ligeia Mare on Titan.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASI/Cornell -
From the tallest cliff in the solar system to its largest impact basin, geological processes on other worlds are very similar to those on our own planet.
ESO/Frederik Peeters
Weather on other planets and moons can be much more extreme than on Earth.
The Earth currently has two moons - but they won’t look like this in the sky.
Earth currently has a second moon - but it won’t stay long.
This Hubble Space Telescope image of Saturn and a few of its moons shows how hard it can be to spot the gas giant’s tiny orbiting companions.
NASA / ESA / Hubble
Astronomers have found 20 new moons around Saturn, and will keep finding more as technology improves.
Enigmatic Europa.
NASA
NASA’s Europa Clipper mission just got the green light - here’s what it could achieve.
Artist’s impression of the Dragonfly landing.
NASA
Titan may host primitive lifeforms and could tell us how life arose on our own planet.
Varied terrain on Europa.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/SETI Institute
Whether anything could live in Europa’s subsurface ocean depends on what kind of salt it contains. Now scientists have found out.
The bright spot in the centre of the image is a new planet forming.
Valentin Christiaens et al./ ESO
Astronomers have found the first observational evidence for a disc of material around a giant young planet at a distant star. It’s a place they think moons can form.
The far side looks a lot like the near side.
NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio
The far side of the Moon sees its share of sunlight – it’s dark only in the sense that it’s mysterious because it’s never visible from Earth. Here’s why.
A moon shadow on Jupiter, the red planet now has a dozen more moons added to the list or such orbiting bodies.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS
Jupiter now has at least 79 moons, the most for any known planet. But where did these newly discovered moons come from?
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
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.
Artist’s impression of a cryobot and submarine in the ice on Jupiter’s Europa.
NASA/JPL
We could be exploring the oceans of Jupiter’s and Saturn’s icy moons in a couple of decades. Here’s what we need to work out.
Enceladus, with its warm internal ocean, is thought to be potentially habitable.
Marc Van Norden/Flickr
A new theory could change our understanding of the moons in our solar system – and the genesis of life itself.
If you’re looking for life, you’d do well to look for some moons.
Maxwell Hamilton
As the list of known planets beyond our solar system grows, the search for their moons is intensifying. One reason: they might hold the key to finding life elsewhere in the universe.
Charon has a huge fracture system, unlike anything seen on Pluto.
NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
Pluto’s moon Charon seems to have had a violent past, with icy volcanoes leaving huge fractures.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
Space scientists have a busy decade ahead with plans to visit Jupiter, Mars, Mercury and other interplanetary bodies all on the cards.
What secrets will space reveal?
AstroStar
Why the Breakthrough Listen project is a step in the right direction in our hunt for life beyond Earth.