Planetary Science

Fresh observations from the James Webb Space Telescope show how vivid auroras surge through Uranus’s tilted magnetic field

On Thursday the U.S. president ordered the release of federal files related to UFOs and aliens, although no evidence of extraterrestrials visiting Earth is known to exist

A study published today helps explain how “planetesimals”—the building blocks of planets—came to be

Four worlds around a small, dim star are challenging theories of planet formation

An experiment to quantify the amount of the universe’s lightest element in Earth’s core suggests that the planet’s water has mostly been here since the beginning

On Friday NASA laid out the time line for Artemis II, humanity’s first crewed mission to the moon in more than 50 years

Discovered by volunteer scientists, this alien planet is out of synch with its siblings

Depending on how you look at it, this catchphrase from a 1980s pop song is decently accurate: you can actually melt the planet if you stop its turning

New laboratory studies could shed light on a rock containing potential signs of alien life that’s stranded on Mars

New experiments show how RNA might form not just on Earth but on other rocky planets, too

Scientific American talks to the author of When the Moon Hits Your Eye, one of our best fiction picks for 2025

Scientists found evidence of a distant planet’s moon system forming