Planetary Science

Perspective and subtle motion allows us to peek over the moon’s edge and into its far side

Facing budgetary pressure for its Mars Sample Return program, NASA has turned to private industry for ideas—perhaps with one specific company in mind

When astronauts return to the moon later this decade, they’ll bring along science experiments to study moonquakes, lunar water ice and extraterrestrial agriculture

The search for a mysterious planetary body beyond Neptune has narrowed down its possible location—if it exists at all

The ocean’s twice-daily rise and fall is only the most obvious effect of tides—they slow Earth’s spin and shape stars and galaxies, too

The atmosphere of exoplanet WASP-76b may rain iron and form a strange, rainbow-like phenomenon called a “glory” never yet seen outside the solar system

Scientists have scarcely begun studying pristine material from asteroid Bennu brought back to Earth by the OSIRIS-REx mission, but have already found several surprises

Scientists have created a guide to the 2024 total solar eclipse for the visually impaired that includes tactile graphics

Astronomers now have three possible theories to explain how weird hot Jupiter exoplanets form

A mathematical formula shows what would be needed to reduce the planet to cosmic dust

Researchers don’t know how this pair of free-floating planets formed or why it radiates so brightly

Sample-return missions have brought piles of moon rocks, plus pieces of asteroids, comets and even the sun back to Earth. Next up is the big prize: Mars