Animation of a crescent Charon and the distant Sun, from the surface of Pluto, a dwarf planet in the Kuiper Belt. Charon is the largest of Pluto's moons, with over half the diameter and an eighth of the mass of the dwarf planet itself. The two bodies are tidally locked to each other, presenting the ...Read more.

Schematic showing how the position of the Earth around the Sun gives rise to the seasons. The Earth's spin axis is tilted by an angle of 23.5 degrees. Summer begins in the northern hemisphere when the planet's north pole is pointed most directly at the Sun (summer solstice). When the south pole is p ...Read more.

Schematic showing how the position of the Earth around the Sun gives rise to the seasons. The Earth's spin axis is tilted by an angle of 23.5 degrees. Summer begins in the northern hemisphere when the planet's north pole is pointed most directly at the Sun (summer solstice). When the south pole is p ...Read more.

Animation depicting Mars during its Hesperian Period, a geological time period extending roughly 3700-3000 million years ago. This Period is characterized by widespread volcanic activity and catastrophic flooding that carved immense outflow channels across the surface. The Hesperian is an intermedia ...Read more.

Artwork showing a map of the south polar regions of Earth during the late Ordovician Period (480 MYa). Scientists have identified two distinctive cyclic episodes of glaciation, each due to a different cause and having different effects on ice distribution. This illustration shows the extent of the i ...Read more.

Artwork showing a map of the south polar regions of Earth during the late Ordovician Period (480 MYa). Scientists have identified two distinctive cyclic episodes of glaciation, each due to a different cause and having different effects on ice distribution. This illustration shows the extent of the i ...Read more.

Animation of a hologram in the form of the planet Earth. ...Read more.

Animation depicting Mars during its Noachian Period, roughly 4100-3700 million years ago. The period is characterised by high rates of meteorite impacts, volcanism and possibly abundant surface water - however, the water is thought to have been localized rather than spanning the planet in oceans, as ...Read more.

Animation depicting Mars during its Noachian Period, roughly 4100-3700 million years ago. The period is characterised by high rates of meteorite impacts, volcanism and possibly abundant surface water - however, the water is thought to have been localized rather than spanning the planet in oceans, as ...Read more.

Artwork depicting the exoplanet TOI-6894b around a red dwarf star. This planet is unusual because, given the size/mass of the planet relative to the very low mass of the star, this planet should not have been able to form. The planet is vary large compared to its parent star, shown here to scale. Wi ...Read more.

When a planet is in a sufficiently close orbit around its parent star, the planet can become tidally 'locked', so that it always presents the same face to its star. The Moon is tidally locked to the Earth, for example. Astronomers have discovered an entire slew of such planets around nearby stars, a ...Read more.

Artwork depicting the change of the planet Earth. The left side of the illustration shows the Earth shortly after it formed some 4600 million years ago. The right side shows the planet as it is today. ...Read more.

Digital illustration showing the earliest moments in the creation of the Universe. Cosmologists define several 'epochs' in the early Universe, which are: Planck Epoch, Grand Unification Epoch, Inflationary Epoch, Electroweak Epoch, Quark Epoch, Baryogenesis, Big Bang Nucleosynthesis and Recombinatio ...Read more.

Digital illustration showing the earliest moments in the creation of the Universe. Cosmologists define several 'epochs' in the early Universe, which are: Planck Epoch, Grand Unification Epoch, Inflationary Epoch, Electroweak Epoch, Quark Epoch, Baryogenesis, Big Bang Nucleosynthesis and Recombinatio ...Read more.

Infographic showing the various branches of science related to the study of the Moon. ...Read more.