Planet news, features and articles

A joint Japanese-European mission to Mercury just made its sixth flyby of the planet, revealing stunning close-ups of the permanently shadowed craters at Mercury's north pole.

A NASA satellite has spotted frozen "kidney beans" on Mars' sand dunes trapped in place until springtime. Photographing them can help us determine if there was ever enough water on Mars to sustain life.

As Mars approaches opposition this week, it will become a dazzling spectacle in the night sky. See it at its best now, or wait until 2027.

NASA will explore two different strategies for fetching Mars rocks collected by the Perseverance rover, and there's a chance these samples contain evidence of alien life.

From arachnid-like formations and mysterious blobs to an underground ocean and a giant volcano, here are our 10 favorite things scientists discovered on Mars this year.

"After staring at dozens and dozens of image pairs, she found something interesting."

Once thought to be 8 billion years old, the star HD 110067 — famous for its six synchronized exoplanets — may be only 2.5 billion years old, new research suggests.

Researchers believe dark rocks at the site of a future Mars rover landing mission may be left over from ancient volcanic eruptions, and may be protecting signs of life — if there ever was life on Mars.

The odd atmosphere of a fledgling exoplanet is causing astronomers to question leading theories of how planets form.

Computer modeling suggests Saturn's rings are billions of years older than previous research suggests — but the new findings are up for debate.