Solar System

Saturn is home to several solar system mysteries. Using data from Cassini, astronomers now suggest a simple answer to a few questions – a lost moon once orbited the planet before being torn to shreds.

A six-year round trip to an asteroid has yielded unprecedented insights into the formation of the solar system. Scientists have analyzed samples returned from asteroid Ryugu, finding a detailed history starting with the oldest material ever found.

Astronomers have found more evidence of giant ice volcanoes on Pluto. New analysis of data and images gathered by the New Horizons mission have revealed unique surface structures that seem to have been produced by something known as cryovolcanism.

Astronomers have discovered the first known quadruple asteroid system. A team from Thailand and France spotted a third moon orbiting the main-belt asteroid Elektra, moving the object into the record books.

An absolutely gigantic comet is currently barreling towards the solar system – and new observations have pinned down its size. Astronomers have measured C/2014 UN271 to be 150 km wide, making it comfortably the largest comet ever discovered.

A huge comet making its journey towards the solar system has begun to show a tail. A newly released image shows the fuzzy coma, confirming that it is indeed a comet and may be one of the largest ever discovered.

Mercury’s disproportionately massive core may be the result of the Sun’s powerful magnetic influence rather than the consequence of a cataclysmic collision with another body in the ancient past, according to the results of a new study.

Editor’s note: New details about this fascinating object have emerged since we wrote this article – here's the latest update.

Maxeon Solar Technologies reckons that it's come up with a way to install PV panels on the roofs of buildings that may not be able to support conventional setups, creating frameless, thin and lightweight panels that can be adhered directly to a roof.

The first comet known to visit our Sun after being born around an alien star may be the most pristine comet ever discovered, new research has found.

For a long time, Pluto was the farthest object we knew in the solar system, but it’s a cosmic stone’s-throw away compared to more recent discoveries. Now astronomers have confirmed the most distant world of all – the appropriately-named Farfarout.

Researchers at the Paris Observatory's Institute of Celestial Mechanics and Ephemeris Calculation have found that the unusual tilt of Saturn's axis is due to the periodic gravitational pull of its moons over the last billion years.