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Is Mars really red? A physicist explains the truth.

By David Joffe published

Mars isn't a bright, fire-engine red, but the iron oxide in its rocks makes it appear redder than other planets, especially from afar.

Mars

JWST spies frigid alien world on bizarre orbit: 'One of the coldest, oldest and faintest planets that we've imaged to date'

By Sharmila Kuthunur Partner Content Created With Space. published

The James Webb Space Telescope has notched another milestone, capturing a direct image of one of the coldest and oldest known exoplanets.

James Webb telescope discovers 'a new kind of climate' on Pluto, unlike anything else in our solar system

By Sharmila Kuthunur published

New James Webb Space Telescope data reveal Pluto's high-altitude haze is a key driver of the climate on the dwarf planet, offering clues to Earth's ancient atmosphere.

Pluto
a purple-hued volcano pokes through a thick layer of clouds

NASA spots Martian volcano twice the height of Mount Everest bursting through the morning clouds: Space photo of the week

By Shreejaya Karantha published

A new panorama from NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter shows Arsia Mons, one of the largest volcanoes on Mars, rising above a thick blanket of clouds before dawn.

Mars
Photo of Uranus surrounded by bright spots, which are its moons

Surprised scientists discover the 'dark sides' of Uranus' moons are the wrong way around

By Harry Baker published

Researchers armed with the Hubble Space Telescope have revealed that some of Uranus' largest moons have one side brighter than the other — but not the side they were expecting.

Uranus

A hidden 'super-Earth' exoplanet is dipping in and out of its habitable zone

By Keith Cooper Partner Content Created With Space. published

With 10 times the mass of our planet, and spending only part of its orbit in the habitable zone, Kepler-725c is very different to Earth.

Why does NASA's Perseverance rover keep taking pictures of this maze on Mars?

By Stefanie Waldek Partner Content Created With Space. published

NASA's Perseverance rover regularly images a Sherlock Holmes–themed maze to calibrate its chemical-hunting SHERLOC instrument.

See a young star potentially giving birth to a giant planet in new image from Very Large Telescope

By Patrick Pester published

New images of a young star, 2MASSJ1612, could have captured the birth of a giant gas planet larger than Jupiter.

Exoplanets

Turning the Red Planet green? It's time to take terraforming Mars seriously, scientists say

By Stefanie Waldek Partner Content Created With Space. published

A new study debates the complex ethical questions that must be considered if we're to terraform Mars and lays the blueprint for a potential path forward.

An artist's illustration showing how WASP-121b formed in a protoplanetary disk

James Webb telescope spots 'groundbreaking' molecule in scorching clouds of giant 'hell planet'

By Harry Baker published

A pair of new studies has revealed that the hellish skies of exoplanet WASP-121b contain silicon monoxide gas, which has never been found in any planetary atmosphere to date.

Exoplanets
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