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One Great Article About Every Planet in the Solar System

A guided tour of our planetary neighborhood, from mysterious Mercury to the dwarf planet Pluto and the search for the elusive Planet Nine.

Alex Dalenberg

Read when you’ve got time to spare.

Mercury is shrinking. Venus may once have been as fit for life as Earth. It rains diamonds on Neptune. Get to know the planets beyond ”My Very Excellent Mom Just Served Us Noodles” with one fascinating thing to read about each of the eight, or, depending on who you ask, nine worlds in our Solar System. Yes, we’re throwing Pluto a bone.

Image CSA Images/Getty Images

Mercury Was a Total Mystery for Centuries. We’re Finally Learning Its Secrets.

Mercury, one of our closest planetary neighbors, has largely been a mystery ever since it was first glimpsed in the sky thousands of years ago. But scientists are finally uncovering some of its secrets — all thanks to a tiny NASA probe that died a grisly death in 2015.

The Romantic Venus We Never Knew

Venus used to be as fit for life as Earth.

When Will the Earth Try to Kill Us Again?

Our planet Earth has extinguished large portions of its inhabitants several times since the dawn of animals. And if science tells us anything, it will surely try to kill us all again.

Everything About Mars Is The Worst

But this jerk planet is still humanity’s best hope for another home in the cosmos.

Jupiter Revealed

The Juno spacecraft has been circling Jupiter since 2016. Here are four things we’ve learned so far about the biggest planet in the solar system.

Saturn Could Lose Its Rings in Less Than 100 Million Years

Recent discoveries suggest that the planet’s distinctive feature may be gone in the cosmic blink of an eye.

Uranus: Why We Should Visit the Most Unloved Planet

Uranus (pronounced “yur-an-us” in polite astronomical circles) does not deserve its dull, or comic, reputation. In fact it is one of the most interesting, exciting and downright weird planets we know of

A Love Letter to the Last Planet

”Neptune really deserves more attention, if you ask me.”

Schrödinger’s Planet

We’ll never have a final answer on whether Pluto is a planet.

The Hunt for Planet Nine

What will it take to find the biggest missing object in our solar system?