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Planets

Find out everything there is to know about planets and stay updated on the latest planet news with the comprehensive articles, interactive features and planet images at LiveScience.com. Learn more about space and the solar system as scientists continue to make amazing discoveries about planets.

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NASA's New Horizons spacecraft captured this image of the blue haze around the dwarf planet Pluto during its historic flyby in 2015.

Pluto's haze made up of ice crystals with cyanide hearts

By Charles Q. Choi published 22 January 21

The haze shrouding Pluto might be made up of ice crystals possessing cyanide hearts, a new study finds.

What if Earth shared its orbit with another planet?

By Charles Q. Choi published 9 November 20

Earth is the only planet traveling within its nearly circular orbit around the sun. But what if Earth shared its orbit with another planet?

An artist's depiction of K2-141b, showing molten rock evaporating into a thin atmosphere in the region closest to the exoplanet's star.

This bizarre planet could have supersonic winds in an atmosphere of vaporized rock

By Meghan Bartels published 6 November 20

Scientists think they have identified a lava world so dramatic that it might boast a thin regional atmosphere of vaporized rock where it is closest to its star.

An artist's impression of the ultrahot Neptune LTT 9779b and its parent star, LTT 9779.

Astronomers peer into the atmosphere of a rare exoplanet that 'shouldn't exist'

By Michelle Starr published 28 October 20

The discovery of the extraordinary exoplanet LTT 9779b was first announced a month ago.

Artist's illustration of Planet Nine, a world about 10 times more massive than Earth that may lie undiscovered in the far outer solar system.

Astronomers find new way to hunt the elusive Planet 9

By Mike Wall published 28 October 20

Astronomers are vetting a technique that could aid the hunt for Planet Nine, which some researchers think lurks undiscovered in the far outer system, way beyond Pluto's orbit.

This artist's depiction shows the first validated Earth-size planet to orbit a distant star in the habitable zone identified by NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope.

Planets more hospitable to life than Earth may already have been discovered

By Stephanie Pappas published 9 October 20

At least two dozen planets outside the solar system might be better for life than Earth.

This Earth-size planet (shown in this artistic illustration) zips around its star every 3.14 days.

'Pi planet' alien world takes 3.14 days to orbit its star

By Mike Wall published 23 September 20

Scientists have found an alien world that orbits its host star every 3.14 Earth days, a close approximation of the famous mathematical constant pi.

In a new study, researchers have modeled the interiors of the ice giants Uranus and Neptune.

Scientists probe the weird, alien water inside of Uranus and Neptune

By Chelsea Gohd published 14 August 20

Researchers are investigating an alien version of water inside the strange, icy interiors of Uranus and Neptune.

The two giant planets in the TYC 8998-760-1 system are visible as two bright dots in the center (TYC 8998-760-1b) and bottom right (TYC 8998-760-1c) of the frame, noted by arrows. Other bright dots, which are background stars, are visible in the image as well. By taking different images at different times, the team was able to distinguish the planets from the background stars. The image was captured by blocking the light from the young, sunlike star (top-left of center) using a coronagraph, which allows for the fainter planets to be detected. The bright and dark seen on the star’s image are optical artifacts.

Multiplanet system around sunlike star photographed for 1st time ever

By Mike Wall published 24 July 20

For the first time ever, astronomers have directly imaged multiple planets orbiting a sunlike star.

This image shows the disk around the young AB Aurigae star, where the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT) has spotted signs of planet birth. Close to the center of the image, in the inner region of the disk, we see the "twist" (in very bright yellow) that scientists believe marks the spot where a planet is forming. This twist lies at about the same distance from the AB Aurigae star as Neptune from the sun. The image was obtained with the VLT's SPHERE instrument in polarized light.

Baby exoplanet spotted growing around distant star (photo)

By Mike Wall published 21 May 20

New imagery pinpoints the spot where a baby planet is forming around the young star AB Aurigae, which lies 520 light-years from Earth.

How to see the last supermoon of 2020

By Laura Geggel published 5 May 20

Even if you're stuck indoors during the pandemic, you can still catch May's full moon, also known as the flower moon.

An illustration of two asteroids colliding

Mysterious 'disappearing' exoplanet was just a big cloud of asteroid trash, study suggests

By Brandon Specktor published 20 April 20

The alleged exoplanet Fomalhaut b was discovered in 2004 and disappeared in 2014. Astronomers now say it was never a planet to begin with.

Uranus is uniquely tipped over among the planets in our solar system. Uranus' moons and rings are also orientated this way, suggesting they formed during a cataclysmic impact which tipped it over early in its history.

What smacked Uranus on its side? Something icy and as massive as Earth, scientists say.

By Mike Wall published 7 April 20

Astronomers have worked out details of the giant impact that knocked Uranus so famously askew.

An artist's depiction of a distorted exoplanet.

Heavy-metal alien planet may be shaped like a football

By Charles Q. Choi published 6 April 20

An exoplanet may be shaped like an American football due to the mighty gravitational forces it experiences close to its star, a new study finds.

An animation shows the strange magnetic field of Uranus. The yellow arrow points toward the sun and the dark blue arrow represents the planet's axis.

Old gas blob from Uranus found in vintage Voyager 2 data

By Meghan Bartels published 27 March 20

Buried inside data Voyager 2 gathered at Uranus more than 30 years ago is the signature of a massive bubble that may have stolen a blob of the planet's gassy atmosphere.

This enhanced-color image of Jupiter's Great Red Spot was created by citizen scientist Jason Major using data from the JunoCam imager on NASA's Juno spacecraft.

Jupiter's Great Red Spot may be shrinking, but its thickness is steady

By Mike Wall published 16 March 20

Jupiter's Great Red Spot isn't shrinking in every direction, a new study suggests.

1.5 billion-year-old Earth had water everywhere, but not one continent, study suggests

By Mindy Weisberger published 2 March 20

Chemicals in ancient ocean rocks hint that 3.2 billion years ago, the surface of a baby Earth was continent-free and covered by a global ocean.

This artist's concept shows magnetic loops carrying gas and dust above disks of planet-forming material circling stars.

How big can a planet get?

By Natalie Hinkel published 22 January 20

Why isn't there an endless variety of planets in the universe? An astrophysicist explains why planets only come in two flavors.

For the first time, scientists have spotted a giant planet orbiting a white dwarf star, shown in this artist's impression of the system.

Evidence of an Alien Planet Spotted Around a White Dwarf, a Cosmic First

By Mike Wall published 4 December 19

For the first time ever, astronomers have spotted evidence of a planet circling a superdense stellar corpse known as a white dwarf, a new study reports.

Mercury's transit across the sun in 2016 took 7 and a half hours. This composite image of the journey was created with visible-light images from instruments on NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory.

Monday, Mercury Makes Rare Appearance with a Trek Across the Sun. Here's How to Watch It.

By Mindy Weisberger published 10 November 19

The tiny planet Mercury will be visible from Earth as it moves across the sun, in an event known as a transit.

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