Solar System

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.

Based on isotope analysis of meteorites, scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have determined that our solar system may have formed much faster than previously thought.

Jupiter’s moon Europa is a fascinating world, with a global subsurface ocean encased in an icy shell and plumes of water that vent into space. A new study has simulated how these plumes might originate, revealing a surprisingly dynamic ice ball.

NASA and NOAA have confirmed that the Sun has entered a new solar cycle, with activity beginning to ramp back up from its minimum in December 2019. This next cycle is forecast to be rather quiet, continuing a long-term trend of reduced activity.

Harvard scientists have suggested that the Sun had a long-lost twin. An ancient binary solar system helps explain the strange structure of the Oort cloud, and possibly the hypothetical Planet Nine. Best of all, the team outlines how we could check.