(Phys.org) -- ESA's Venus Express has been used to study the geology in a region near Venus' equator. Using near-infrared observations collected by the Venus Monitoring Camera (VMC), scientists have found evidence that the planet's rugged highlands are scattered with geochemically more evolved rocks, rather than the basaltic rocks of ...

NASA's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) caught Jupiter, Mercury and the Pleiades Star Cluster converging within its camera's field of view.

(Phys.org) -- The discovery of planets around other stars has led to the realization that alien solar systems often have bizarre features - at least they seem bizarre to us because they were so unexpected. For example, many systems have giant planets closer to their star than Mercury is to ...

Watching Venus trek across the sun's face could help planet hunters hone their techniques.

A few hundred thousand billion free-floating life-bearing Earth-sized planets may exist in the space between stars in the Milky Way. So argues an international team of scientists led by Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe, Director of the Buckingham Centre for Astrobiology at the University of Buckingham, UK. Their findings are published online ...

(Phys.org) -- An international team of astronomers led by David Pinfield of the University of Hertfordshire has found a brown dwarf that is more than 99% hydrogen and helium. Described as ultra-cool, it has a temperature of just 400 degrees Celsius and its discovery could be a key step forward ...

Mars' atmosphere may have been roughly 20 times thicker 3.5 billion years ago than it is today.

In the search for Earth-like planets, it is helpful to look for clues and patterns that can help scientist narrow down the types of systems where potentially habitable planets are likely to be discovered. New research from a team including Carnegie's Alan Boss narrows down the search for Earth-like planets ...

The process to build a giant hot Jupiter may be incompatible with smaller worlds, scientists say.

Starting from the surface of the morning star and ending with a view from above Earth. The transit will become reality for human eyes on June 5, 2012 for the last time until 2117.