How Do Ice Giants Like Uranus and Neptune Maintain Their Magnetic Fields?
Probing the structures and properties of superionic ice. A layer of “hot,” electrically conductive ice could be responsible for generating the magnetic fields of ice…
Neptune
Mushballs – Giant, Slushy Hailstones – Stash Away Missing Ammonia at Uranus and Neptune
Mushballs – giant, slushy hailstones made from a mixture of ammonia and water – may be responsible for an atmospheric anomaly at Neptune and Uranus…
NASA Has Just Rejected Missions to the Strange Moons of Jupiter and Neptune – Here’s What We Would Have Discovered
It’s been 30 years since NASA last visited Venus, with the Magellan orbiter in 1990. Now, two new missions have been selected to explore the deadly atmosphere, crushing…
Deep Water on Ice Giants Neptune and Uranus May Be Magnesium-Rich
While scientists have amassed considerable knowledge of the rocky planets in our solar system, like Earth and Mars, much less is known about the icy…
Two Strange Planets: Unsolved Magnetic Mystery on Uranus and Neptune
Uranus and Neptune both have a completely skewed magnetic field, perhaps due to the planets’ special inner structures. But new experiments by ETH Zurich researchers…
Astronomers Puzzled by Dark Storm’s U-Turn on Neptune, Appearance of New Dark Spot
This video is a full-globe map of the distant planet Neptune, created from Hubble Space Telescope data taken January 7-8, 2020. The movie reveals Neptune’s…
NASA Mission to Investigate One of the Solar System’s Most Unusual Worlds: Neptune’s Strange Moon Triton
One of four concepts being considered for a Discovery Program mission, Trident would investigate one of the solar system’s most unusual worlds. When NASA’s Voyager…
Wild Orbits of Neptune Moons a ‘Dance of Avoidance’ [Video]
Even by the wild standards of the outer solar system, the strange orbits that carry Neptune’s two innermost moons are unprecedented, according to newly published…
Scientists Witness Storm Formation on Neptune for the First Time
In 1989, NASA’s Voyager 2 zipped past Neptune—its final planetary target before speeding to the outer limits of the solar system. It was the first…
Hubble Uncovers Origin of Neptune’s Smallest Moon Hippocamp
Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, along with older data from the Voyager 2 probe, have revealed more about the origin of Neptune’s smallest…
Hubble Image of the Week – A Storm is Coming
Since Pluto’s demotion from fully-fledged planet to dwarf planet, Neptune holds the title of outermost planet in the Solar System. This new image of the…
ESO’s VLT Captures Remarkably Sharp Test Images of Neptune
ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) has achieved first light with a new adaptive optics mode called laser tomography — and has captured remarkably sharp test…
Hubble Telescope Views Mysterious Shrinking Storm on Neptune
Three billion miles away on the farthest known major planet in our solar system, an ominous, dark storm – once big enough to stretch across…
NASA Astronomers Complete Ice Giant Mission Study
NASA has released the first study of potential future missions to the mysterious “ice giant” planets Uranus and Neptune. The Ice Giant Mission Study is…
Kepler Observes Neptune and Its Moons Triton and Nereid
Seventy days worth of solar system observations from NASA’s Kepler spacecraft, taken during its reinvented “K2” mission, are highlighted in this sped-up movie. The planet…
Pluto-Bound New Horizons Gets a Distant Look at Neptune and Triton
This newly released image of Neptune and its large moon Triton was captured by NASA’s New Horizons Spacecraft as it continues on its voyager towards…
Historic Voyager 2 Image of Neptune
This historic image of Neptune was taken twenty-five years ago by NASA’s Voyager 2 Spacecraft. NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft gave humanity its first glimpse of…
New Color Map of Neptune’s Moon Triton
The Lunar and Planetary Institute used Voyager’s 1989 historic footage of Neptune’s moon Triton to construct the best-ever global color map of the strange moon….