Why Are Some Planets Surrounded by Rings?
Planets are surrounded by rings because they are made up of particles that orbit the planet. These particles can be made up of a variety…
Neptune News
Incredible New Webb Telescope Image of Neptune Captures Never Seen Ring Details
Webb Space Telescope Infrared Observations Tease Out Never Seen Atmospheric and Ring Details At an average distance of 2.8 billion miles (4.5 billion kilometers) from…
“Diamond Rain” on Giant Icy Planets May Be More Common Than Thought
SLAC scientists found that oxygen boosts this exotic precipitation, revealing a new path to make nanodiamonds here on Earth. According to new research, “diamond rain,”…
China’s Nuclear-Powered Mission to Neptune
China is Considering a Nuclear-Powered Mission to Neptune Some bold and cutting-edge space missions are proposed for the coming decade, as made clear by the…
New Discovery Reveals Why Uranus and Neptune Are Different Colors
Observations from Gemini Observatory and other telescopes reveal that excess haze on Uranus makes it paler than Neptune. Astronomers may now understand why the similar…
Surprising Changes in Neptune’s Temperatures Detected by Astronomers
Using ground-based telescopes, including the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT), an international team of astronomers track Neptune’s atmospheric temperatures over a 17-year…
Unexpected Atmospheric Temperature Changes Detected on Neptune
Neptune Is Cooler Than We Thought New research led by space scientists at the University of Leicester has revealed how temperatures in Neptune’s atmosphere have…
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…
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 a fully-fledged planet to a dwarf planet, Neptune holds the title of the outermost planet in the Solar System. This new…
