Let NASA take you on a virtual trip to exoplanets

Exoplanets are worlds orbiting distant stars. Until recently, they existed only in the realm of imagination and probability. Now we know thousands! NASA's Exoplanet Travel Bureau lets you explore them.

New Horizons is awake!

New Horizons is boldly exploring where no spacecraft has before. It's the craft that swept past Pluto in 2015. Now it's preparing for its next encounter on January 1, 2019.

Dunes on Pluto? Yes, but made of methane ice

The discovery of methane dunes on Pluto is an indication of another way in which this planet mimics Earth, but in a way that is utterly unique and alien.

Globular clusters not as old as thought?

New research suggests that globular clusters - once thought to be nearly as old as the universe itself - aren't that old, after all. They might be only around 9 billion years old.

These distant moons may harbor life

Astronomers have identified 121 giant exoplanets whose moons might be capable of supporting life.

Small asteroid zipped through Earth’s atmosphere

The IAU confirmed that the asteroid originally designated ZLAF9B2 – now called 2018 LA – disintegrated at a height of 30 miles (50 km) over South Africa on June 2, 2018.

Planet-hunter Kepler keeps going as fuel dwindles

Kepler has discovered thousands of exoplanets, and soon will run out of fuel. Now it's begun its 18th observing campaign, with a focus on objects including the famous nearby Beehive star cluster and infamous asteroid Apophis.

Could we learn E.T.’s language?

If an extraterrestrial civilization had a language, would it have common features with Earth languages? Linguists explain why they think it's possible.

Does Planet Nine exist? Astronomers point to new evidence

A new study concludes that a large, as-yet-unknown Planet Nine - an estimated 4 times the size of Earth and 10 times its mass - is influencing the behavior of an oddball object in the outer solar system.

Is Pluto made of a billion comets?

By comparing data from the 1st-ever Pluto flyby and a 1st-ever comet rendezvous mission, scientists developed what they call the 'giant comet’ model of Pluto formation.

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