A strikingly beautiful view of a delicate bubble of expelled material around the exotic red star U Antliae helps astronomers understand how stars evolve during the later stages of their life-cycles.
Exoplanet WASP-12b has the unique capability to trap 94 percent of the visible starlight falling into its atmosphere. The result is a world as black as fresh asphalt.
Researchers using Venus Express spacecraft data report "stationary waves" and slowly moving features in the planet's upper clouds, during Venus' long and mysterious night.
"If cometary organic molecules were indeed produced in interstellar space—and if they played a role in the emergence of life on our planet—might they not also have seeded life on many other planets of our galaxy?"
NASA said Cassini's final flyby of Titan - Saturn's large moon - went as planned. The spacecraft is now on a course that'll take it inside Saturn's atmosphere, for a fiery end to its mission, on September 15.
And last week mission scientists filed a flight plan for New Horizons' next flyby - of the Kuiper Belt object 2014 MU69 - in early 2019. It'll be farthest encounter yet between an earthly spacecraft and distant solar system body.