A dense metallic core, a silicate mantle, and a thin atmosphere on top—this familiar internal structure of rocky planets may ...

Perhaps the most intriguing exoplanets found so far are those bigger than our rocky, oceanic Earth but smaller than cold, gas-shrouded Uranus and Neptune. This mysterious class of in-between planets ...

A strange dark spot on Neptune has been observed from Earth for the first time, offering fresh clues into how these marks form. In 1989, NASA’s Voyager 2 space probe detected a shadowy region on ...

The object, known as 2002 XV93, is a minor planet and a Trans Neptunian Object (TNO).

The presence of an enormous Neptune-sized exoplanet 90 light-years from Earth has been confirmed after it was first spotted in 2019. The study, published in The Astronomical Journal, confirms the ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. An award-winning reporter writing about stargazing and the night sky. A planet’s opposition occurs when Earth passes between it ...

Neptune from Voyager 2 spacecraft, c1980s. The Voyager 2 space probe was launched by NASA in August 1977. The purpose of the Voyager programme was to study the outer Solar System. Artist NASA. (Photo ...

The deep interior of Neptune, Uranus and Earth may contain some solid ice. Through first-principle molecular dynamics simulations, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientists, together with ...

Using ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT), astronomers have observed a large dark spot in Neptune's atmosphere, with an unexpected smaller bright spot adjacent to it. This is the first time a dark spot ...