Moons

Science 2023-05-31T19:06:20Z

NASA's Webb Telescope spots a water plume twice the length of the US, spewing from a Saturn moon that could host alien life

Gigantic plumes of ocean water are spraying out of Enceladus at a rate of 79 gallons a second, creating a water "donut" around Saturn.
Science 2023-04-25T18:28:41Z

Up-close photos of the Martian moon, Deimos, are forcing scientists to rethink how it formed in the first place

Some of the closest photos of Deimos in nearly 50 years suggest it's not a captured asteroid from space but may once have been a part of Mars.
Science 2022-09-16T15:17:36Z

Saturn's gravitational pull shredded an ancient moon, creating its iconic rings and unusual tilt, new research suggests

One of Saturn's icy moons may have been ripped apart 160 million years ago, a new study suggests. The disintegrated moon could explain two mysteries.
Science 2022-02-05T11:02:00Z

Jupiter's powerful auroras form during a 'tug of war' between the planet and nearby moon volcanoes

NASA's Juno spacecraft and the Hubble Space Telescope helped researchers chart the electric currents driving Jupiter's aurora.
Science 2021-09-26T11:49:00Z

10 years after NASA launched its Juno mission to Jupiter, these are its most stunning images of the gas giant

NASA's Juno spacecraft has zipped past Jupiter's poles, watched its Great Red Spot churn, and visited its largest moon.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Science 2021-08-25T22:03:51Z

Stunning video captures a rare Jupiter triple-eclipse: 3 large moons passing over the planet

Moons pass between Jupiter and Earth all the time, but it's rare that three of them do it at once. The video also shows one moon eclipsing another.
Science 2021-07-24T01:34:55Z

NASA is giving SpaceX $178 million to launch its mission to a Jupiter moon that could harbor alien life

Europa could hold aquatic alien life in a vast underground ocean. NASA has finally set a date with SpaceX to launch a spacecraft there to find out.
Science 2021-07-23T19:55:23Z

Astronomers spotted a distant planet in the middle of making its own moon

The disc surrounding this planet has enough dust and gas to form three moons the size of our own. The halo is 500 times larger than Saturn's rings.
Science 2021-07-15T23:00:02Z

A mesmerizing NASA video lets you ride with the Juno spacecraft as it flies by Jupiter and its largest moon

Juno flew within 645 miles of Ganymede, Jupiter's largest moon, last week — the closest any spacecraft has gotten in more than two decades.
Science 2020-06-04T18:38:00Z

Mars may have had a giant ring billions of years ago, new research suggests

The strange orbit of Mars' moon suggests that the planet may have pulled moons toward it in the past and ripped them apart to form a ring.
Science 2019-11-23T13:55:00Z

NASA is testing an alien-hunting rover in Antarctic waters as part of the agency's plans to send robots to ocean moons of Jupiter and Saturn

The rover is part of NASA plans to explore the salty oceans hidden beneath the thick ice crusts of Europa and Enceladus.
Science 2019-11-20T12:15:00Z

NASA just detected water vapor on a moon of Jupiter — yet another clue that Europa's hidden ocean could hold alien life

Alien life could be hidden in the salty ocean below Europa's surface. An upcoming NASA spacecraft will hunt for more clues.
Science 2019-11-12T14:17:00Z

An incredible video shows what we would see if the planets replaced the moon. But that would turn Earth into a volcanic hellscape.

The pretty sky wouldn't last long. If Jupiter loomed above, Earth would be a volcanic hellscape. If Saturn took its place, a moon would crash into us.
News 2019-10-07T21:56:42Z

20 new moons were just discovered orbiting Saturn, and you can help name them

Saturn now has more moons than any other planet in our solar system. You can suggest names for 20 newly discovered moons in a Twitter contest.
News 2019-06-27T22:05:00Z

NASA's next $1 billion space mission will be an alien-hunting nuclear helicopter that flies around Saturn's icy moon Titan

Dragonfly will use plutonium-238 — a radioactive substance made during the Cold War — to power flights around a gassy, icy, and maybe habitable world.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Science 2019-01-17T22:33:38Z

Scientists noticed a strange shimmering spot on Titan, and it's the first evidence of rainfall in the Saturn moon's northern hemisphere

The bright spot of rainfall close to Titan's north pole could mean that the Saturnian moon has changing seasons similar to those on Earth.
Science 2019-01-07T22:18:04Z

A breathtaking NASA video shows Jupiter's moons passing over Jupiter's Great Red Storm

A video created with images from the late Cassini spacecraft shows Jupiter's Io and Europa moons passing by the planet's massive gaseous storm.
Science 2019-01-04T19:32:58Z

NASA's Juno spacecraft spotted a volcanic eruption on Jupiter's moon that was 'shooting material off the moon's surface'

The bright plume found on the Jupiter moon Io's surface could be the most volcanically active spot in the solar system.
News 2018-07-18T13:34:00Z

Scientists just found a dozen new moons around Jupiter — including one they're calling an 'oddball'

The researchers that discovered Jupiter's moons were searching for a hypothetical massive planet that might exist at the far fringes of our solar system, often referred to as Planet Nine or Planet X.
News 2018-06-28T21:31:00Z

NASA 'tasted' complex organic compounds in a blast of water from one of Saturn's moons — and can't yet rule out the possibility that they're from alien life

Enceladus, an ice-encrusted moon of Saturn, hides an ocean of saltwater that blasts ice into space. NASA flew its Cassini spacecraft through the ice geysers in 2015, and scientists detected complex organic molecules. Though not proof of alien life, it's a good sign for the habitability of Enceladus.
View more