Small Body

Our solar system contains eight planets and more than 200 moons. The large majority of those moons have no chance of being habitable, but some of them—Europa and Enceladus, for example—are strong candidates in the search for life.

Off-earth mining may once have been purely the stuff of science fiction, but now it's potentially a US$1 trillion industry that is likely to be vital if humans are serious about colonizing Mars or the moon.

Tiny little bullets flood the solar system, each micrometeoroid a potential hazard. New research has found that the James Webb Space Telescope's thin sunshields, and future inflatable spacecraft, may be at risk.

A new study, conducted by scientists at The University of New Mexico, found ancient, primordial helium-3 leaking from the Earth's core, suggesting the planet formed inside a solar nebula, stirring further debate among scientists.

Scientists at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, recently received samples of the lunar surface that have been curated in a freezer at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston since Apollo 17 astronauts returned them to Earth in December 1972.