Exploring the Solar System

When the Giuseppe Piazzi discovered Ceres over two centuries ago, he would not have believed that we would one day travel out to explore it. NASA sent a spacecraft called Dawn on a journey of more than 3 billion miles to reach this mysterious world.

This extraordinary video looks back on the 3rd year of operation of NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory. Since its launch in 2010, SDO's data and imagery have exceeded everyone's hopes and expectations, providing stunningly detailed views of the sun.

Here are some downright chilling sounds recorded by several spacecraft. The sounds come from radio signals that are created by solar winds interacting with plasma that is wafting through our solar system.

There is plenty of evidence that Mars at one time had an atmosphere that allowed water to flow on its surface. What happened to it?

For decades, planetary scientists have suspected that ancient Mars was a much warmer, wetter environment than it is today, but estimates of just how much water Mars has lost since its formation vary widely.

This is the story of a discovery made on St. Patrick's Day, 2015. We learned just how much Mars is at the mercy of our sun. During a solar outburst that hit Mars that day, the NASA spacecraft Maven measured an accelerated loss of molecules in its upper atmosphere.

Mars Express, the first planetary mission of the European Space Agency, was sent to the Red Planet in 2003. It sent a lander down to the surface, and although it failed to fully deploy , the orbiter has been taking pictures and mapping the surface ever since.

This video takes images from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory and applies additional processing to enhance the structures that are visible. The result is a beautiful, new way of looking at the sun.

Scientists using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have produced new maps of Jupiter that show the continuing changes in its famous Great Red Spot. The images also reveal a rare wave structure in the planet�۪s atmosphere that has not been seen for decades.

Mars is a world long imbued with possibilities. From the writer HG Wells to modern day astrobiologists, we've long wondered what creatures may have emerged on the Red Planet.

The New Horizons Mission has sent back a gallery of stunning images. Who would have known that Pluto was so beautiful and so complex?

Our Sun is located 24-26,000 light years from the center of the Milky Way. It circles the galaxy every 225-250,000 years, at a speed of 220 kilometers per second.

With Curiosity preparing to investigate another new site on Mars, here's a roundup of the 17 cameras the rover will use to clue scientists in on what it finds.

Yutu, or "Jade Rabbit," is an unmanned lunar rover that was part of the Chinese Chang'e 3 Moon mission. It reached the lunar surface in mid-December 2013.

The Cassini Spacecraft swooped in for the last of five close encounters with one of the most beautiful moons in our solar system: Dione. Revel in the record of Dione images from one of the greatest photographic collections ever amassed.

Astronomers made a surprise discovery: the remote asteroid Chariklo is surrounded by two dense and narrow rings. From ESO.

Did liquid water once flow on Mars? Did the planet support life in any form? The answers may shed light on whether life-bearing planets are the norm in our galaxy run. Or is it a rare gem, with a unique make-up and history that allows it to support life.

Dive into the Sun to find out what causes it to erupt in fury! This video features a ground-breaking supercomputer simulation that recreates the flow of hot plasma deep inside the Sun.