Scientists are exploring and continuing to search for potentially habitable alien worlds
Since the first exoplanet orbiting a Sun-like star was confirmed in 1995, scientists have discovered more than 5,000 such distant worlds. More than half of these discoveries were made by NASA’s Kepler space telescope, launched in 2009 to determine the prevalence of Earth-like planets in the Milky Way galaxy. Kepler was decommissioned in 2018, having discovered more than 2,600 exoplanets.
Some facts about the devices and methods for studying Venus
Between 1961 and 1984, the Soviet Union sent 16 exploration missions to Venus. NASA’s Parker Solar Probe made several flybys of Venus, utilizing the planet’s gravity assist. The DAVINCI mission, consisting of a flyby spacecraft and a lander, is scheduled to launch in the early 2030s. Using solid oxide electrolysis, EVE enables the exploration of Venus using balloons of unlimited duration. The Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) spacecraft was on a trajectory to perform a gravity assist pass by Venus on August 31, 2025. The Japanese space agency reported losing contact with its intrepid Akatsuki spacecraft, designed to explore Venus, in May 2024.
Jupiter and its asteroid belt played a crucial role in the distribution of the essential chemical components necessary for life
As Jupiter formed and grew to enormous size and its gravitational influence increased, the planet restricted the movement of phosphorus and nitrogen from the inner to the outer Solar System. This meant that when the second generation of planetesimals emerged, those in the inner Solar System had a higher phosphorus-to-nitrogen ratio than their counterparts further out.
Pluto’s ‘Heart’ Hints at Its Rich Geological World
When the New Horizons mission flew past Pluto in 2015, it discovered a geologically rich world, not the cold, dark landscape many expected. Almost immediately, researchers discovered two features, named Mount Wright and Mount Piccard, which were suspected to be ice volcanoes, and further study confirmed their identity.
The latest facts about our planetary neighbor, Venus
Venus is the second planet from the Sun and Earth’s closest planetary neighbor. Venus is the third-brightest object in the sky after the Sun and the Moon. Venus rotates slowly, in the opposite direction to most planets. Several Russian Venera probes have detected particles about a micron in length in the lower layers of Venus’s atmosphere—roughly the same size as a bacterium on Earth.
Scientists have confirmed that space weather affects spacecraft, astronaut safety, radio communications, GPS, and power grids on Earth
The effects of solar storms may be limitless. Observations have shown that electrical currents in the Earth’s upper atmosphere, which can affect satellites, communications, and navigation signals, increase as the solar wind intensifies.
New Horizons expanded the boundaries of the Kuiper Belt, discovered “snowmen” and other unusual objects
The Kuiper Belt may extend billions of miles further than anyone imagined. NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft encountered Pluto in 2015, then spent an extended period in the deepest layers of the Kuiper Belt and encountered a cosmic dust storm, suggesting that the outer reaches of the Solar System may be even further away than we imagine.
Planet or not a planet? Pluto’s status raises serious questions about how to define any object in the solar system
The current debate over Pluto highlights the difficulties in defining the concept of “planet.” The IAU defines a planet as a celestial body orbiting the Sun, having a nearly spherical shape, and having largely cleared its orbital environment of space debris. But even this set of criteria is not universally accepted.
New information about the instruments used to study the Sun in our solar system
The RF observatories, SOHO, Inouye, BioSentinel, Proba-3, Parker Solar Probe, SPHEREx, PUNCH, Carruthers, Helios, and SunRISE study solar radio flares, the solar atmosphere, the influence of solar radiation on various objects, and map the solar magnetic field from the outer corona to interplanetary space.
Modern questions about the solar system: its speed, boundaries, hidden objects in the outer part
The solar system may be moving through space three times faster than expected. The location of the outer edge of the solar system is also a subject of debate among astronomers. Here’s a simple guide to the sizes and locations of the planets in our solar system.
The most general and up-to-date information about the “former” ninth planet of the Solar System – Pluto
Pluto is the largest known dwarf planet in the Solar System. It was previously considered the ninth and farthest planet from the Sun. In 2006, its status was downgraded. This strange world is located in the Kuiper Belt—a region beyond Neptune filled with hundreds of thousands of rocky, icy bodies, each over 100 kilometers in diameter, as well as 1 trillion or more comets. Pluto ceased to be a planet in 2006 when it was reclassified as a dwarf planet, sparking controversy and debate in the scientific community and among the general public.
Solar activity cycles have stumped scientists around the world, and research continues
When the current solar cycle began in late 2019, experts from the Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC), which includes scientists from NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), predicted that solar maximum would likely begin sometime in 2025 and would be comparable to the previous, weaker cycle. However, as the current cycle progressed, it quickly became clear that this was not the case, and that solar maximum would occur earlier and be much more intense than initially anticipated.
Candidates for Planet Nine in the depths of our solar system
The predicted position of Planet Nine is intended to explain the irregular orbits of some Kuiper Belt objects in the outer solar system. However, some researchers are unconvinced that these orbits are caused by an undiscovered planet, and the scientific community as a whole still awaits direct observational evidence of Planet Nine’s existence. If Planet Nine does exist, researchers predict it to be much larger than Earth and to orbit in an unusual orbit billions of miles from Neptune, the eighth and currently last planet in our solar system. Planet Nine’s proposed orbit is so far from the Sun that it would be difficult for Earth-based scientists to detect it, making it difficult to prove or disprove its existence.
Recent studies of Pluto’s moon Charon have revealed that it contains water ice, ammonia and organic compounds, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen peroxide
Charon is a medium-sized body, approximately 750 miles (1,207 kilometers) wide, located in the Kuiper Belt—a ring of icy debris, comets, and dwarf planets, also called trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs), at the edge of the solar system. Unlike many larger Kuiper Belt objects, Charon’s surface is not covered in volatile ices like methane, allowing scientists to gain valuable insight into the influence of sunlight on cratering these distant bodies. Furthermore, Charon is the only medium-sized TNO for which geological mapping is available. This was made possible thanks to data collected by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, which visited the Pluto system about a decade ago.
Unique properties of ionic liquids, superalcohols and cosmic radiation indicate the existence of life beyond Earth
Life may exist right under our noses in the Solar System—the moons of Jupiter and Saturn are of great interest. Europa and Enceladus may harbor vast subsurface oceans where at least microbial life could be possible. Thanks to new data obtained with the James Webb Space Telescope, scientists have discovered compelling evidence of extraterrestrial life on one exoplanet. But is water truly a necessary ingredient for life? A new study has determined that ionic liquids can form where liquid water cannot, thanks to their ability to remain liquid over a wide range of temperatures and pressures. These ionic liquids may ultimately support biomolecules such as proteins.
Water is an inevitable consequence of planet formation and is much more common in the galaxy than scientists previously thought
The findings suggest that water may not be a rare cosmic coincidence, but rather an inevitable consequence of planet formation, making it far more common in the galaxy than scientists previously thought. Water is life, at least as we know it. All life on Earth uses liquid water, and researchers studying the origins of life believe that the complex chemistry of life likely originated either in a warm pool on the Earth’s surface or near a deep-ocean hydrothermal vent. Therefore, planetary scientists are particularly interested in extraterrestrial locations where liquid water exists. Based on existing exoplanet data, super-Earths and sub-Neptunes are considered the most common classes of planets in our galaxy, and some of them are likely water worlds. However, these planets are large, and the interactions between the water in their oceans and the rocks in their interiors will determine how habitable they might be.
Sunspots and Solar Flares: A Timeline of Occurrences and Research Results in 2025
The end of 2025 was marked by the appearance of a solar spot directly facing Earth, similar in parameters to the standard for assessing modern cosmic threats—the “Carrington event.” And in early November 2025, a series of powerful X-class solar flares triggered coronal mass ejections, resulting in extensive aurora borealis displays observed as far south as Mexico.
The IMAP mission defines the boundaries of the heliosphere and provides space weather measurements
NASA’s new Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Mission (IMAP) was launched on September 23, 2025. Its goal is to study the heliosphere—the giant shield created by the Sun. The mission will determine the boundaries of the heliosphere to help us better understand the protection it provides for life on Earth and how it changes with solar activity.
Planet Nine is a hypothetical extra planet lurking in the far reaches of our solar system
For nearly a decade, astronomers have been scouring the outer reaches of the solar system for signs of a hypothetical ninth planet, to no avail. However, experts say we may finally be on the cusp of discovering it. Deep in the outer reaches of the solar system—so far from the known planets that the sun would barely be distinguishable from the nearest star—a vast, icy world may be lurking in the shadows, waiting to be discovered. More evidence has emerged of a hypothetical extra planet lurking in the farthest reaches of our solar system, and these clues lie in icy bodies that cross the orbit of Neptune on long, winding orbits around the sun.
Alien craft or natural object? The most mysterious comet, Atlas, is approaching Earth
Initial estimates placed the comet’s diameter at about 11 kilometers (7 miles). However, subsequent data from the Hubble Space Telescope indicated that 3I/ATLAS is likely closer to the maximum size of 5.6 kilometers (3.5 miles). In any case, it is likely the largest interstellar object ever observed.
Jupiter’s Moon Europa: Water, Ice, Salt, and Sulfur. Latest Research
Europa is one of the most interesting moons in the solar system, it is one of the Galilean moons of Jupiter, along with Io, Ganymede, and Callisto. Astronomer Galileo Galilei is credited with discovering these moons, some of the largest in the solar system. Europa is the smallest of the four, but one of the most interesting. Europa’s surface is covered in ice, but scientists believe that there is an ocean underneath. The icy surface also makes it one of the most reflective moons in the solar system.
How Juno Explores Jupiter and Its Moons
New data from the agency’s Jupiter orbiter shed light on the fierce winds and cyclones of the gas giant’s northern reaches, as well as volcanic activity on its fiery moon. NASA’s Juno mission has obtained new data by peering beneath Jupiter’s cloudy atmosphere and onto the surface of its fiery moon Io. The data not only helped develop a new model to better understand the fast-moving jet stream that sweeps across Jupiter’s cyclone-strewn north pole, but also revealed for the first time the temperature profile beneath Io’s surface, providing insight into the moon’s interior and volcanic activity.
What has been learned about Jupiter in recent years? Latest information and photos from probes
Jupiter is the largest planet in the Solar System and the fifth planet from the Sun. This gas giant has beautiful banded clouds, thin dust rings, the famous Great Red Spot, and dozens of moons. Jupiter is also the oldest planet in the Solar System, having formed 4.6 billion years ago. Its distance from the Sun is an average of 484 million miles (779 million km). Jupiter is 86,900 miles (139,900 km) wide, or 11 times wider than Earth. A year on Jupiter lasts 11.86 Earth years. Jupiter has the shortest day in the Solar System, lasting only 10 hours. Jupiter is the fourth brightest object in the Earth’s sky after the Sun, the Moon, and Venus. There are enough planets the size of Earth to fit inside Jupiter.
Jupiter’s Moon Io. Timeline of Exploration
Io, Jupiter’s fifth moon, is the most volcanically active body in the solar system. Io’s surface is dotted with hundreds of volcanoes, some of which spew sulfur plumes hundreds of kilometers into the air.
Jupiter Mission: Present and Distant Past
Since the first flyby of Jupiter in December 1973, when NASA’s Pioneer 10 spacecraft flew past the gas giant, Jupiter has been the subject of numerous flybys and close encounters by pioneering Earth probes. Pioneer 11 made its closest approach a year after Pioneer 10 in December 1974, and Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 flew past Jupiter in 1979.
A quick overview of all of Jupiter’s moons
Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, boasts 95 moons, making it the second most populated planet by moon count (Saturn has the most). A huge gas giant, Jupiter is orbited by numerous moons; the four largest of these are known as the Galilean moons, discovered by Galileo Galilei using a telescope in 1610. The four moons – Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto – are arranged in order of their distance from Jupiter. These moons proved that not all celestial bodies orbit the Earth, an important discovery because astronomers had previously believed that the Earth was the center of the universe.
The Juno spacecraft has discovered salts, organic compounds and water vapor on the surface and in the atmosphere of Ganymede, Jupiter’s largest moon
NASA’s Juno spacecraft has discovered salts and organic compounds on the surface of Ganymede, Jupiter’s largest moon. The discovery was made during a June 2021 flyby, during which Juno studied Ganymede with its Jovian InfraRed Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) instrument, an instrument designed to study the chemistry and interactions in the atmospheres of Jupiter and its moons. Ganymede, one of these moons, is the largest moon in the solar system — at 5,268 kilometers (3,200 miles) wide, larger than the planet Mercury — and has a vast ocean beneath its icy crust.
Jupiter’s Great Red Spot: What is Known About It Today
The Great Red Spot is an anticyclone, a long-term area of high pressure on Jupiter that creates persistent storms. Located in Jupiter’s southern hemisphere, this storm is the largest in our solar system and appears as a giant red spot on Jupiter’s surface. It has been around for 150 years, and may have been around longer, according to NASA.
Jupiter May Have Helped Form Earth’s Moon
The so-called “great instability” event that wreaked havoc among the planets and sent the gas giants hurtling through space until they settled into their familiar orbits appears to have occurred between 60 and 100 million years after the birth of the solar system, according to a thorough scientific investigation that has linked the meteorite to an asteroid once ejected by these destructive planets.
Basic principles of the Europa Clipper spacecraft, which studies the astrobiological potential of habitable worlds
Europa Clipper is NASA’s first spacecraft designed to explore an ocean world beyond Earth. Its goal is to find out if the ice-covered moon Europa is habitable. With its antennas and solar panels fully deployed, Europa Clipper is the largest spacecraft ever designed by NASA for a planetary mission. Europa Clipper’s flyby of Mars prepares it for its second gravity assist, a close encounter with Earth in December 2026.
Scientists Discover Giant Hidden Gas Cloud Eos Just 300 Light Years From Earth
Eos is located at the edge of the Local Bubble, an irregularly shaped region of hot, rarefied gas within the Orion Arm that envelops the solar system. Scientists estimate that the cloud is enormous in size when projected onto the sky — about 40 moons — and has a mass about 3,400 times that of the Sun. Models suggest that Eos will evaporate in about 6 million years.
In 2029, complications with the asteroid Apophis are likely during its passage near Earth
Collisions between Apophis, the “God of Destruction”, and other bodies could increase the chances of it hitting Earth. A study has found that the “God of Chaos” asteroid could be transformed by tremors and landslides during its flyby of Earth in 2029. ESA has awarded OHB Italia SpA a €63 million contract to begin preparatory work on the agency’s proposed Ramses mission to the infamous asteroid Apophis.
Phaethon is an asteroid that thinks it’s a comet
What is the difference between an asteroid and a comet? A comet is essentially a dirty ball of ice, made up of rock and ice. The classic image is of a bright “star” in the night sky with a long, curving tail stretching into space as it approaches the sun and begins to release gases and dust. This usually continues until there is nothing left but rock, or until the comet disintegrates into dust.
The Oort Cloud consists of comets with million-year orbits and surrounds the solar system
The spherical shell known as the Oort Cloud is virtually invisible. Its particles are spread so thinly and so far from the light of any star, including the Sun, that astronomers simply cannot see the cloud, even though it envelops us like a blanket. It may be hard for the human mind to comprehend: a cosmic cloud so colossal that it encircles the Sun and eight planets, stretching trillions of miles into deep space.
And asteroids have their own satellites
The European Space Agency’s Gaia star-gazing mission has once again proven its ability to explore asteroids, discovering potential moons around more than 350 asteroids that are not known to have moons.
Analysis of a sample of asteroid Bennu reveals dust rich in carbon, nitrogen and organic compounds needed for life
Early analysis of a sample of the asteroid Bennu returned by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission has revealed dust rich in carbon, nitrogen and organic compounds, all of which are essential components for life as we know it. The sample, dominated by clay minerals, particularly serpentine, reflects the type of rock found at mid-ocean ridges on Earth.
The Erigone family of asteroids are water-rich space rocks that offer a window into the solar system’s past
A family of primitive asteroids is giving astronomers a window into the past as they seek to unravel the history of these small space rocks that are believed to have once brought water to Earth.
Hera mission to visit previously shot down asteroid Dimorphos to assess impact of its DART collision
Dimorphos is a moon of the near-Earth asteroid Didymos. This binary asteroid system was previously visited by NASA’s DART spacecraft, which deliberately collided with Dimorphos in 2022 and changed its orbit around Didymos as a demonstration of a planetary defense technique designed to change the trajectory of a potentially hazardous asteroid.
Video reports from other planets and systems? Our Sun can provide such an opportunity
Plans to use a solar lens date back to the 1970s. More recently, astronomers have proposed developing a fleet of small, lightweight CubeSats that would deploy solar sails to accelerate them to 542 AU. Once there, they would slow down and coordinate their maneuvers, creating an image and sending data back to Earth for processing.
The mystery of solar winds is almost solved
Since the 1960s, astronomers have wondered how the Sun’s supersonic “solar wind,” a stream of energetic particles that flows into the solar system, continues to gain energy after it leaves the Sun. In addition to helping scientists better predict solar activity and space weather, such information also helps us understand the mysteries of the universe elsewhere and how stars like the Sun and stellar winds elsewhere operate.
Solar flares and magnetic storms pose a real danger
About once every thousand years, Earth experiences an extreme solar event that can cause severe damage to the ozone layer and increase ultraviolet (UV) radiation levels at the surface. Over the past century, the north magnetic pole has moved across northern Canada at about 40 kilometers per year, and the field has weakened by more than 6%. Geological records show that there have been periods of centuries or millennia when the geomagnetic field was very weak or even absent.
Solar flares continue to break records
NOAA Is Rewriting the Book on How to Rank Solar Storms: The Capabilities, the Science, and Our Understanding of the Science — A lot has changed in space weather in the last 25 years. Technology has improved, and scientists have learned more about extreme space weather events from historic geomagnetic storms like the Halloween solar storm of October 2003 and the Gannon Event of May 2024. Looking to the future, scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) are now looking for ways to better inform the public about space weather events that can impact Earth. That’s why NOAA is asking the public for input on how to rewrite its space weather scales.
Abnormally restless Sun: the number of solar flares has increased several times
The Sun triggers an X-class solar flare, sending coronal mass ejections toward Earth. Active sunspot AR3777 in early August 2024 triggered the most powerful of three solar flares in that period, sending another coronal mass ejection toward Earth with a possible geomagnetic storm. CMEs are powerful explosions of magnetic fields and plasma that result from solar flares on the Sun that can lead to powerful geomagnetic storms on Earth.
Rogue planets captured by the Sun are able to make their way into the solar system
The Sun scoops up rogue planets as they fly by. The Sun is capable of capturing both small planets and Jupiter-sized gas giants that stray too close; our star then keeps them at the edge of the solar system.
The Corona Paradox of the Sun
Scientists have long wondered why the hot charged particles in our sun’s atmosphere get hotter as they move away from the sun’s surface. A new study may provide an answer, finding that the super-hot nature of the sun’s outer atmosphere, or “corona,” may be linked to the intriguing behavior of small-scale waves in this hazy plasma. These waves, known to scientists as “kinetic Alfvén waves,” or “KAWs,” are wave-like oscillations of magnetic fields that manifest themselves in motions in the sun’s photosphere.
The Heliosphere – a new object for study
Scientists call the region of space that the Sun influences the heliosphere, but without an interstellar probe, they know little about its shape. The heliosphere, the region of space that the Sun influences, is more than a hundred times the distance from the Sun to Earth.
Magnetic field and sea
German zoologists have found that bottlenose dolphins are as good as sharks and other fish in their ability to sense very weak electric fields, which allows these cetaceans to use the Earth’s magnetic field for orientation in space. Underwater compasses have recorded disturbances in the Earth’s magnetic field deep under water.
Scientists have linked the development of life with a magnetic field and concluded about magnetic fields on other planets
The weakening of the Earth’s magnetic field has led to a dramatic acceleration in the evolution of multicellular life. Fossil evidence has been found in Brazil and South Africa that the strength of the Earth’s magnetic field was about 30 times weaker than today’s values at the end of the Ediacaran period, about 590 to 560 million years ago. One of the defining features of the Earth is its magnetic field. It forms a protective shield against high-energy particles ejected by the Sun, and thus may have provided a safer place for life to grow into the complex array of organisms we see today.
Gravity and life: new discoveries
Scientists have found geological evidence that the gravitational interaction between Mars and Earth is driving the 2.4-million-year deep-sea circulation cycle and global warming. What happens if the moon disappears? Stars can strip entire planets of their atmospheres. Discovery of retrograde orbits.
Laws formulated by a 17th century scientist are used in modern space technologies
The story of how we understand planetary motion would be impossible to tell if not for the work of the German mathematician Johannes Kepler. Kepler’s Three Laws describe how the planets orbit the Sun. They describe 1 – how planets move in elliptical orbits with the Sun as the focus, 2 – a planet covers the same area of space in the same amount of time, regardless of where it is in its orbit, and 3 – the period revolution is proportional to the size of its orbit.