Here’s a solar system being born

Astronomers have spied 2 rings of dust around a young star, DM Tau. The image shows what our own solar system might have looked like as its planets were forming, 4.6 billion years ago.

NASA proposes mission to Neptune moon Triton

Triton is Neptune's largest moon. It's a bizarre and geologically active world - a possible ocean moon - visited by Voyager 2 in 1989. Now, NASA has proposed a new mission called Trident to sweep past Triton again in 2038.

What happened before the Big Bang?

How can we get an inkling of what existed before our universe began? Scientists at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics suggest a way.

Jupiter’s 700,000-year journey toward the sun

Scientists in Sweden say that Jupiter - largest planet in our solar system - formed 4 times farther away from the sun than its current orbit. They believe it moved inward toward the sun in a journey lasting 700,000 years.

What’s going on with Jupiter’s Red Spot?

This giant storm has remained a nearly constant feature of Jupiter's turbulent atmosphere for at least 300 years. How can a storm persist for so long?

Great images of fireball over Bering Sea

Last December 18, a big "fireball" or bright meteor exploded above the Bering Sea with more than 10 times the energy of the atomic blast over Hiroshima. Satellites saw it all.

Scientists gather to contemplate The Great Silence

Are we alone? If advanced alien civilizations are out there, why haven't we heard from them? Scientists call this Fermi's Paradox - aka The Great Silence - and they gathered in Paris to discuss it.

How aspen leaves could save Mars rovers

Aspen trees - fondly called Quakies by some - have trembling, quivering leaves. Now those leaves have inspired an energy-harvesting mechanism that might rescue dust-laden rovers on Mars.

Astronomers clock super-fast pulsar speeding through space

The runaway pulsar escaped the blast wave of the supernova that formed it, astronomers say, and is hurtling through space so fast it could travel from Earth to the moon in just 6 minutes.

A jet stream in Europa’s ocean?

Jupiter's moon Europa likely has a subsurface ocean, possibly salty, with volcanic vents on its ocean floor. A new study suggests it might also have an oceanic jet stream, comparable to the Gulf Stream back here on Earth.

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