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Planet

An illustration of a protoplanet crashing into Jupiter

Protoplanet smackdown may explain Jupiter’s core makeup

Science

Scientists say Jupiter may have been hit head-on by protoplanet not long after being formed — a violent collision with apparent lasting effects on the planet’s core

Moonrise from aboard the International Space Station, August 3, 2017.

What happened to the moon’s magnetic field?

Science
An artist’s concept of a planetary system discovered by Kepler, called KOI-961.

Kepler turns up a trove of new exoplanets

Science
Plate tectonics illustration.

Before plate tectonics, the Earth may have been covered by one giant shell

Science
An artist’s rendering of the surface of exoplanet TRAPPIST-1.

The scientific community is still buzzing about discovery of seven Earth-sized exoplanets

Science
An artist's rendering of a habitable moon orbiting a gas giant planet.

Life beyond Earth? The best bet may be on moons, not planets

Science

The search is on for planets that could harbor life, but many of the candidates that we can see are more like gassy Jupiter than rocky Earth. But those planets may be home to rocky moons that can sustain life themselves

An artist's rendering if Kepler 186f, a world extremely similar to Kepler 438b, an Earth-like exoplanet orbiting an M-class dwarf star in the habitable zone.

Up close, ‘Earth-like’ planets are still wildly unfamiliar worlds

Science

The Kepler Space Telescope is on the hunt for potentially habitable planets, but even the most “Earth-like” planets can look dramatically different than our home. One of them, Kepler-438b, is a case study in just how tough finding a second Earth can be.

NASA scientist speaks at COSAT

School Year Blog: South African students meet a NASA scientist

Development & Education

What happens when students from a low-income high school in Cape Town meet a NASA scientist? Let’s just say the scientist may have been a little caught off guard.

NASA’s Kepler Spacecraft Will Never Search for Planets Again

The question of whether there is life in our galaxy may have already been answered by a spacecraft called Kepler, which was named for the man who calculated how the planets in our solar system move. According to NASA, the Kepler Spacecraft a has identified and calculated the movements of more than 3,500 possible planets, […]

MIT professor explores planets for signs of life

Environment

Professor Sara Seager is certain life has evolved on another planet. Seager, a planetary scientist and astrophysicist at M.I.T., is one of the leaders of the hunt for new planets that demonstrate evidence of life.