Planetary Science
Netflix's hit sci-fi series '3 Body Problem' is based on a real math problem that is so complex it's impossible to solve
The three-body problem is a question in physics that deals with planets and stars. It's considered unsolvable because the system is chaotic.
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.
Watch NASA mission control live as the Perseverance rover attempts to land on Mars on Thursday
NASA's Perseverance Mars rover will attempt to record video and audio as it plunges through the planet's atmosphere at 12,000 mph.
NASA's Perseverance rover is about to attempt a supersonic plunge to Mars, complete with a jetpack landing
NASA's rover must plow through Mars' atmosphere at supersonic speeds, deploy a parachute to slow itself, then fly to safety with a jetpack.
A NASA animation reveals the harrowing descent to Mars that the Perseverance rover will attempt on Thursday
A supersonic parachute and a jetpack will help Perseverance land on Mars. A NASA video offers a sense of the footage the rover will record.
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NASA's attempt to burrow into Mars met 2 insurmountable obstacles: cement-like soil and an unexpected energy shortage
InSight lander's "mole" was unable to hammer through the Martian soil, and unusually dusty solar panels meant the robot was generating less power.
NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is about to suck up asteroid rubble for the first time. Watch the risky maneuver live.
The NASA probe will attempt an intergalactic high-five with asteroid Bennu and use a robotic arm to scoop up rocky dust.
16 plutonium-powered space missions shaping our understanding of space — including the NASA rover that will search for alien life on Mars
They're fueled with the red-hot plutonium-238, a byproduct of Cold War-era nuclear weapons production, and NASA's Perseverance rover is the newest.
NASA just launched its Mars alien-hunting Perseverance rover into deep space with a drone tucked under its belly
The car-size rover will drill into Martian rocks, look for chemical signatures of ancient microbial life, and tee up future human exploration of Mars.
Watch NASA launch Perseverance, the space agency's alien-hunting car-size Mars rover, to the red planet
On Thursday at 7:50 a.m. ET, NASA launched its fifth Mars rover, Perseverance, aboard an Atlas V rocket. The agency recorded the flight on YouTube.
NASA added 6 HD video cameras to its next Mars rover so we can all watch the first footage of a spacecraft landing on another planet
The Perseverance rover will perform a descent to the surface that will require a heat shield, supersonic parachute, and rocket-powered crane.
China just launched an ambitious Mars mission that could be its first to reach the red planet — and make it just the third nation to explore the Martian surface
The Tianwen-1 orbiter, lander, and rover mission successfully launched on a Long March 5 rocket Thursday, teeing it up for a Mars landing in 2021.
A simple animation by two scientists reveals what Earth's surface is made of — and how we only see 0.5% of the planet
Earth's surface, where all known life exists, makes up only 0.49% of its mass. Just below, the mantle glows green.
The most detailed map of the moon's geology ever released may help astronauts explore the lunar surface
Researchers at the US Geological Survey combined six flat maps and data from two spacecraft to create a rich 3D depiction of the moon.
NASA slowly drains the oceans in an incredible animation, revealing hidden underwater mountain ranges and ancient land bridges
The video offers a glimpse at the world ancient humans lived in by exposing the ice-age bridges they crossed between continents.
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There is no permanent dark side of the moon, and this simple animation by a former NASA scientist explains why
The far side of the moon and the dark side are not the same thing. This animation shows how one is constantly moving, while the other never changes.
Dead planets can 'broadcast' for up to a billion years, and they could tell astronomers what will happen after our sun blows up
Finding dead planets' radio broadcasts can help scientists learn how the sun's death in 5 billion years will affect our solar system.
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.
'This is a hard day:' NASA's Opportunity rover is dead, ending the longest-running Mars mission in history
The Opportunity rover hasn't returned NASA's calls. Its lasting silence means the agency's Mars Exploration Rovers program has come to an overdue end.
Scientists found the 'missing link' in the theory on how planets are formed
Astronomers have spent years trying to prove a theory on how planets are formed from small asteroid-like objects called Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt Objects.