Live coverage: ExoMars orbiter safely arrives at Mars, lander’s fate uncertain

Inner planets Mercury and Venus are currently approaching conjunction, low to the southwest horizon shortly after sunset. If you have an extra clear sky, then Mars completes the scene.

Jupiter’s intense northern and southern lights, or aurorae, behave independently of each other according to a new study using NASA’s Chandra X-ray and ESA’s XMM-Newton observatories.

Planetary scientists have discovered pieces of opal in a meteorite found in Antarctica, a result that demonstrates that meteorites delivered water ice to asteroids early in the history of the solar system. Opal, familiar on Earth as a precious stone used in jewellery, is made up of silica (the major component of sand) with up to 30 percent water in its structure.