Read the latest positive news, breakthroughs, and inspiring stories about planetary science, curated daily by BrightWire.
Long before spacecraft visited distant worlds, meteorites were delivering cosmic samples to Earth for free. These ancient space rocks continue to reveal the Solar System's birth story and guide modern exploration.
Scientists just debunked a century-old theory about comets seeding life on Earth, and the real answer might be closer to home than we thought. Cambridge researchers discovered that the molecules needed for life probably came from right here on our planet.
A scorching planet 280 light-years away defies expectations by maintaining a thick atmosphere that reflects 75% of starlight. Scientists believe clouds of minerals act like a protective shield while molten rock continuously feeds fresh gases into the air.
On this day in 1975, the Soviet Union's Venera 9 became the first spacecraft to orbit Venus and send back photos from another planet's surface. Despite facing temperatures of 900°F, the lander captured images and data that changed how we see our closest planetary neighbor.
Dr. Garry Hunt, one of eight scientists chosen from nearly 1,000 applicants for NASA's Voyager imaging team, shares how the mission transformed our understanding of the outer planets. The probes, launched in 1977 to take advantage of a planetary alignment that happens once every 176 years, continue transmitting data nearly 50 years later.
A spacecraft just launched on a groundbreaking journey to bring back the first-ever samples from Mars's mysterious moons. The mission could unlock secrets about how planets formed and even how life began.
A groundbreaking spacecraft launches Monday to collect the first-ever sample from Mars' moon Phobos and bring it home to Earth. The tiny 10-gram sample could solve a 4.5 billion-year-old mystery about how the Red Planet got its moons.
Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope discovered a bizarre exoplanet with the consistency of marshmallow and an atmosphere decorated with rising "gemstone" formations. The breakthrough mapping technique reveals how the scorching hot world's atmosphere shifts dramatically between its eternal day and night sides.
Scientists will finally learn whether Mars' mysterious moons are asteroid captures or debris from an ancient collision. A sample from Phobos will return to Earth in 2031, unlocking secrets about our solar system's early history.
For the first time in a generation, NASA is heading back to Venus with three groundbreaking missions launching in the 2030s. After decades of budget cuts and canceled plans, scientists are finally getting the chance to explore Earth's mysterious twin planet.
For the first time ever, astronomers watched water clouds shift and change on a world outside our solar system, just like weather on Earth. The discovery brings us one step closer to understanding how universal the laws of nature really are.
A Seoul professor just captured the first-ever footage of planet-building dust forming and traveling through space, solving one of astronomy's oldest puzzles. Her discovery explains how materials that need scorching heat ended up forming icy comets billions of miles from the Sun.