Ceres—the largest object in the asteroid belt—may have once harbored a muddy ocean

Categorization of celestial objects has changed over history

Once classified as planets, Ceres and Vesta are now considered a dwarf planet and an asteroid, respectively. The discovery of many similarly sized objects led to the creation of the asteroid belt category.

Asteroids are artifacts of water's presence in the solar system

Asteroids contributed to planet formation and carried water from the solar system's outer reaches toward the center. They were also early providers of the necessary elements and conditions for life to evolve on Earth.

In 2022, NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft touched down on an asteroid

Dust of asteroid Bennu, slightly wider than the Empire State Building is tall, was found to be rich in carbon, nitrogen, and organic compounds essential for life. The presence of magnesium-sodium phosphate indicated Bennu may have broken off from a primitive ocean world.

Remnants of another planet that helped form the moon may be beneath Earth's surface

Large mantle structures beneath Africa and the Pacific Ocean may be the buried remains of Thea, a large Mars-sized planet that collided with Earth. The theory is supported by isotopic evidence from volcanic and lunar rocks.

A four-billion-year-old meteorite reignited the debate about life on Mars

Recovered from Antarctica in 1984, ALH84001 contained organic compounds, magnetite and iron sulfide grains of potential biological origin, and features that resembled fossilized bacteria. With technological advancements, scientists found abiotic origins for these features in the following decades.

About 20% of asteroids are metal worlds similar to Earth's core

The biggest of these (that we know of) is 16 Psyche. Measuring 140 miles across, its iron and nickel content is potentially worth 10,000 quadrillion dollars. NASA’s mission to Psyche—reaching the asteroid in 2029—will study it to learn about its formation.

Studies show the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs was from the outer asteroid belt

Isotopic evidence confirms the rock was a carbon-rich asteroid, likely born beyond Jupiter and later knocked into Earth's path after billions of years of orbital drift and gravitational nudges. Its path spanned over 4 billion years and ended in the extinction of 75% of life, including all nonavian dinosaurs.

Europa's deep ocean may hold the conditions needed to support alien life

Beneath its frozen crust, Europa hides a salty ocean heated by tidal forces from Jupiter. This environment may resemble Earth's deep-sea hydrothermal vents and have allowed for the development of life over billions of years.

Ice found in another star system for the first time

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has discovered frozen water in a young star system. The ice is similar to that found in Kuiper Belt objects in our solar system, and provides insights into planetary formation processes.

What is the Kuiper Belt?

The Kuiper Belt is a collection of extraterrestrial objects that might've been a planet if it hadn't been for Neptune. Still, the belt is a fascinating collection of dwarf planets, rocks, ice, and comets. Extending beyond Neptune's orbit, the Kuiper Belt provides an endless selection of interesting objects and anomalies for astronomers to explore.

The Oort cloud, our solar system's theoretical icy shell

Recurring comets lead astronomers to believe they originate from an extremely distant, icy shell encapsulating the solar system. They call it the "Oort cloud," and this giant swarm of icy objects is as fascinating as it is is massive. Home of comets and a tremendous number of planetesimals, this NASA site introduces you to the Oort.

Ceren: The Maya Pompeii (sans all the bodies)

The Maya village of Ceren in El Salvador was preserved by volcanic ash from 1,400 years ago, revealing insights into ancient Maya commoners' lives. Ceren villagers had autonomy in their daily activities, and excavations reveal evidence of communal decision-making and event hints at the presence of a community sauna. Dive into more of the archaeological finds on how businesses were run, how they prepared for disaster, and more.

Visualize water's abundance across the solar system, and its relative rarity on Earth

Despite covering almost three-quarters of its surface, water only makes up about 0.12% of Earth's volume. Water in some of Jupiter's and Saturn's moons comprises a larger share of those celestial bodies and of the total water in the solar system. For example, Jupiter's moon Ganymede is believed to harbor almost nine times Earth's oceans beneath its icy shell.

A history of water on the moon

Is there water on the moon? In 2020, NASA's SOFIA mission confirmed the existence of water on the sunlit area of the lunar surface. Early astronomers mistook the dark spots on the Moon for oceans, but they are actually plains of dark, lava-produced...

Geological features on Mars' surface provide evidence of massive past flooding

The presence of river valleys, enormous canyons, and other structures carved by water on Earth suggests that water flowed abundantly across Mars' surface. The layering of rocks in the walls of these structures indicates the intensity and volume of these flows.

Explore the known asteroids, comets, and spacecraft involved in asteroid studies within our solar system with 'Eyes on Asteroids,' a 3D visualization from NASA.

What can be found underneath the Saharan sands?

Watch this 19-minute video to learn more about what can be found under the Sahara Desert, which spans almost all of northern Africa and is one of the largest deserts in the world. Deep under the Sahara desert sands lies evidence of life that once...

The 300-million-year period where Earth looked like a snowball

Life has existed on Earth for at least 3 billion years, but the planet has not always looked like it does today. Rather than the blues and greens of our modern globe, for a 300 million-year period, the Earth was covered in ice and snow, from the poles to the equator. Surprisingly, life was thriving at the time.

Research suggests a 95-kilometer-wide (59-mile-wide) asteroid impact could boil the Earth's oceans

Even a 1-kilometer-wide (0.62-mile-wide) asteroid can trigger earthquakes and tsunamis on impact with oceans. The overwhelming majority of asteroids that reach Earth are much smaller and burn up in the atmosphere before reaching the ground.

Scientists determine the smells of objects in outer space

Using spectrographic techniques, scientists determine the chemical composition of planetary atmospheres, comets, and other objects in space. Combining these chemicals in labs on Earth has revealed locations in space that smell like nail polish remover, rotten fish, and urine.

In 2022, a piece of Challenger was discovered on the ocean floor

While searching for World War II wreckage near Cape Canaveral, Florida, for a documentary, divers discovered debris on the seafloor that NASA later confirmed to be a piece of Space Shuttle Challenger wreckage. The piece is at least 15-by-15 feet in size and partially buried under sand.

Bake bread like a Roman, and honor Ceres, the goddess of wheat

Grains made up about 70% of the Roman diet, and the word "cereal" stems from the goddess Ceres—the Roman equivalent of Greece's Demeter—to whom they prayed for good harvests. Cato the Elder, a famous statesman, left behind a simple home recipe for a Roman loaf.

There are lots of weird ideas about dinosaur extinction, like hungry, hungry caterpillars

One of the great historical puzzles is this: why did the dinosaurs go extinct? Whether an asteroid, poison plants, volcanos and climate change, or something else, it's still a mystery. Scientists have been debating this question for almost a hundred years. One insect scholar suggests that caterpillars are the culprits.

Layers in sediment cores hold clues to Earth’s past climate

By analyzing materials such as pollen and algae within the layers of these cores, which are collected from lakes and oceans, scientists can learn what the environment and climate were like when that layer formed.

Apollo astronauts left items in the moon's 'toss zone,' including golf balls, family photos, and bags of human waste, to make room for lunar rocks.

Tardigrades can survive in a dehydrated state for decades

Despite being known as water bears, these microscopic creatures can shut down their metabolism when entering cryptobiosis, squeezing more than 95% of the water from their bodies. In this tun state, tardigrades can even survive the vacuum of space.

Space trash could be cleaned up using a giant inflatable bag

California-based TransAstra has developed and tested a device called Capture Bag, intended to catch anything from small rocks to house-sized boulders. The company claims its system could also be adapted for asteroid capture and mining.

Scientists can determine Earth's past climate conditions by analyzing air trapped in microscopic bubbles within ice cores—columns of compressed snow layers that build up over hundreds of thousands of years.

After NASA's Voyager 1 captured Earth as a single pixel as it left the solar system in 1990, astronomer Carl Sagan used the image to reflect on humanity's fragility and the responsibility to protect 'the only world we've ever known.'

Watch how deep-sea mining equipment collects and processes polymetallic nodules—metal-rich, potato-shaped rocks—from the ocean floor and creates environmentally damaging plumes of sediments.

Explore the archaeological treasures of Pompeii, the city buried under volcanic ash when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 CE.

While the sun's gravity keeps the planets in orbit, their gravity also pulls on the sun, causing it and everything else in the solar system to orbit around a mutual balance point called the barycenter—the true center of the solar system.

Waves off the coast of Nazaré, Portugal, can reach over 100 feet and are caused by the area's deep underwater canyon geography

The use of fungi to detoxify land and water—a process known as mycoremediation—has been used to clean up natural resources affected by the 2025 California wildfires.

Sunflowers have long been a symbol of nuclear disarmament because they can extract large amounts of radioactive cesium from soil.

Most of the observable universe's volume consists of voids and supervoids—enormous regions of space with little to no galaxies, stars, or light.

All rainbows are 'raincircles' caused by water droplets separating white sunlight into a spectrum of colors, but Earth's surface blocks the bottom half of the circle from our line of sight.

The syncytiotrophoblast is the outer layer of the placenta and the largest human cell, spanning an area about twice that of a king-sized bedsheet.

SpaceX's S-1 or 'prospectus' revealed many previously unknown details about the company, including its unprofitability despite doing $18.7B in revenue in 2025, exactly how many voting shares Elon Musk will have in the company (roughly 85%), and more.

The Great Salt Lake's distinct dual coloration results from high-salinity organisms that only live in the northern portion and produce a purple protein.

See how Budweiser's famous Clydesdales spend their days at Warm Springs Ranch, where roughly 70 to 80 of the beer brand's giant horses can be found at any given time.

A 2019 Facebook event called on attendees to "Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us," resulting in countless memes, the creation of a music festival, and eventually the arrests of those who did try to approach the area.

Crows are believed to have intelligence on par with a seven-year-old child and demonstrate complex behaviors, from problem-solving with tools to recognizing human faces.

Corals are themselves not coral reefs—the term refers to the tiny marine invertebrates that build the rigid reef.

The Dracula character, now seen as the vampire archetype, was inspired by a seafood-induced nightmare its creator experienced.

A researcher recently discovered an interview from 1967 between groundbreaking journalist Joan Didion and the Grateful Dead, years before the band became an institution.

English mathematician Ada Lovelace wrote the first computer algorithm a century before computers existed and hypothesized that computing devices would one day be able to compose music—foreseeing the generative AI systems of today.

The hormonal disorder PCOS was renamed PMOS in 2026, a move designed to improve care and research by shifting the focus to the hormonal causes of this condition that affects 1 in 8 women.

In preparation for this weekend's Eurovision finale, which is something like the World Cup of pop music, here's a young Céline Dion performing (for Switzerland?) at the 1988 competition.

The American Society of Civil Engineers' infrastructure report card gave the US a C in 2025, its highest grade since the project launched in 1998.