Planets

BepiColombo’s second date with Mercury

A second swingby at the solar system’s smallest planet.

By Phil Plait | 

1 month ago

Earth’s core is speeding up and slowing down

Go home, Earth’s core. You’re drunk.

By Phil Plait | 

1 month ago

A lack of wind keeps a dull haze layer around Uranus

Uranus is very similar to Neptune, but looks very different.

By Phil Plait | 

2 months ago

The solar system is really messed up (and it might mean Planet 9 exists)

Blame it on gravity.

By Elizabeth Rayne | 

3 months ago

Ceres may be an invader from the outer solar system

It’s the largest world in the asteroid belt, but it may not have been born there.

By Phil Plait | 

4 months ago

Uranus got its moons when a big rocky planet whacked it. Maybe.

Planet-on-planet giant impact may explain a lot of weirdness with Uranus.

By Phil Plait | 

5 months ago

Planets might still be able to crawl out of dying stars

It's not zombification, but it kind of is.

By Elizabeth Rayne | 

6 months ago

We live in a star system more alien than most

The way that our solar system was shaped by pressure bumps and rings made it unusual in more than one way.

By Elizabeth Rayne | 

7 months ago

Some planets want to be giants when they grow up (and they grow faster than we thought)

Planets can grow into monsters in much less time than something that huge was thought to reach "adulthood."

By Elizabeth Rayne | 

8 months ago

Newly found ultrahot exoplanet has a 16-hour year… and is also doomed

Exoplanet has the shortest orbit ever seen for a gas giant.

By Phil Plait | 

8 months ago