[Friday, May 4, 2012] This mottled landscape shows the impact crater Tycho. Astronomers didn't aim NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to study Tycho, however. The image was taken in preparation to observe the transit of Venus across the Sun's face on June 5-6.

[Monday, April 9, 2012] Venus is a rarity among planets - a world that does not internally generate a magnetic field. Despite the absence of a large protective magnetosphere, the near-Venus environment does exhibit a number of similarities with planets such as Earth.

[Thursday, March 22, 2012] On June 5th/6th of this year the last transit of Venus in your lifetime will happen. Learn about its history, what it means and how you can participate in this rare event.

[Friday, March 16, 2012] ESA's Venus Express spacecraft has returned to routine operation after its startracker cameras were temporarily blinded last week by radiation from a pair of large solar flares.

[Tuesday, March 6, 2012] As the solar wind rushes outward from the Sun at nearly a million miles per hour, it is stopped about 44,000 miles away from Earth when it collides with the giant magnetic envelope that surrounds the planet called the magnetosphere.

[Monday, March 5, 2012] Three months before the last transit of Venus this century, scientists are gathering at the Observatoire de Paris to finalize their observation plans in a workshop supported by the Europlanet Research Infrastructure and the EGIDE/PHC Sakura Program.

[Friday, February 10, 2012] ESA's Venus Express spacecraft has discovered that our cloud-covered neighbor spins a little slower than previously measured. Peering through the dense atmosphere in the infrared, the orbiter found surface features were not quite where they should be.

[Thursday, February 9, 2012] Alien planets might experience tidal forces powerful enough to remove all their water, leaving behind hot, dry worlds like Venus, researchers said.

[Thursday, September 29, 2011] At first glance, a weather forecaster for Venus would have either a really easy or a really boring job, depending on your point of view.

[Monday, September 19, 2011] Over 1,200 new potential planets have been spotted by the Kepler, almost a quarter of them are thought to be Super-Earths. New research suggests that these massive rocky planets may be the result of the failed creation of Jupiter-sized gas giants.

   »» More top stories from December.