Top 5 things to know about InSight Mars

InSight is a Mars lander - not a rover - designed to study a whole world from just one spot. It's due to arrive at Mars in November. Here are 5 highlights of the mission.

Lightning across the solar system

Lightning is beautiful and powerful on our own planet. Here's what's being discovered about lightning on other worlds, via NASA ScienceCasts.

Old photos provide clues about a planet with giant rings

Photographic plates going back to 1890 are providing new clues as to whether a distant exoplanet has a giant ring system, more than 100 times wider than Saturn's.

Mars Express eyes a curious cloud

The long, thin, white cloud has been seen extending west of a Martian volcano since September 13. It looks as if it could be volcanic, yet it isn't. Here's what's going on.

Baby stars blow bubbles in Cat’s Paw nebula

In the star-forming Cat's Paw nebula, baby stars heat up the gas surrounding them. The gas then expands to form bubbles in the nebula.

This planetary nebula has 2 ultra-close stars at its heart

A planetary nebula isn't related to planets. It's an old star, sloughing off its outer layers. Now astronomers have spied 2 ultra-close stars at a planetary nebula's heart. The pair orbits in only 3 hours!

EVE and Wall-E have Mars in their sights

The MarCOs - 2 briefcase-sized CubeSats accompanying NASA’s InSight spacecraft - are chasing Mars as it orbits the sun. Along the way, they've captured the 1st-ever CubeSat image of Mars!

Astronomers spy 4 giant planets orbiting a very young star

Finding 4 giant planets orbiting another star isn't too unusual these days. But these massive planets are the largest known to orbit such a young star - CI Tau - only 2 million years old.

Our Milky Way almost collided with another galaxy

Astronomers found a snail-shaped substructure of stars in our larger Milky Way galaxy. It indicates the Milky Way is still enduring the effects of a near-collision that set millions of stars moving like ripples on a pond.

Europa may have towering ice spikes on its surface

Penitentes - large pointed spikes of ice - are known on Earth and Pluto. Jupiter's moon Europa might have them, too, according to new research. If they're there, they could make a future landing on Europa tricky.