solar system

Astronomers kicked Pluto out of the planetary club in 2006 because of its small size. But scientists set to explore the surface Tuesday via a spacecraft's camera say those other guys are just wrong.

Construction is starting in Chile on a new sort of telescope. One aim is to survey huge swaths of sky for faint signals of a "Planet X" that may be lurking on the farthest edges of our solar system.

Scientists hope NASA's MAVEN probe, which went into orbit Sunday night, will provide insight into why the Martian climate changed drastically billions of years ago.

SciWorks Radio is a production of 88.5 WFDD and SciWorks, the Science Center and Environmental Park of Forsyth County, located in Winston-Salem.

On August 6th of this year the European Space Agency completed a 10 year journey of the space probe Rosetta to the object designated Comet 67P. While several cometary flybys and missions have been completed in the past, Rosetta will accomplish a series of firsts, according to the European Space Agency. It is the first spacecraft to orbit a comet, and as such it will be the first to accompany a comet as it journeys to the inner solar system. It will be the first to see up close the transformation of a comet as it approaches the sun. Rosetta will place a robotic lander on the surface in the first-ever controlled landing on a comet. The images produced will be the first ever taken from the surface of a comet.

For the past decade or so, scientists have been waiting for the Voyager 1 spacecraft to cross into deep space. New research suggests it already has — over a year ago.