New observations suggest that the dwarf planet Makemake is surrounded by faintly glowing methane gas. Scientists are unsure ...

Our solar system is much like a trail of microcosmic breadcrumbs: Follow the molecular bits as far back as they go, and you'll learn a thing or two about where many of our planets and other celestial ...

Scientists have detected methane gas glowing faintly above Makemake, an icy dwarf planet smaller and farther than Pluto in space. Until now, Pluto was the only object that far out in the solar system ...

The methane gas may constitute a rarefied atmosphere, or it may come from erupting plumes on Makemake’s surface.

More than 50 times further from the Sun than Earth, the tiny dwarf planet Makemake is one of the last places you'd expect to find an intact gaseous atmosphere. Not only is it incredibly cold, being ...

Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have observed a white dwarf - a highly compact stellar ember - that appears to have gobbled up an icy world akin to the dwarf planet Pluto, a finding with ...

New research suggests that planets outside our solar system contain far less surface water than scientists once believed. Contrary to earlier theories that these exoplanets might be covered by deep ...