Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. An award-winning reporter writing about stargazing and the night sky. Ask anyone what their favorite planet in the solar system is ...

For decades, Uranus and Neptune have carried the tidy label of “ice giants,” shorthand for worlds built mostly from frozen ...

We might have been very wrong about exactly what lurks below the tranquil blue and green surfaces of Uranus and Neptune. Previous theories have suggested a range of hidden properties of the two ...

When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Credit: NASA, ESA, Mark Showalter (SETI Institute), Amy Simon (NASA-GSFC), Michael H. Wong (UC ...

Neptune and Uranus are the seventh and eighth planets from the sun, and as such share a lot of the same characteristics. Though they are different colors (Neptune is bluer than Uranus' cyan hue) and ...

A scientist simulated the contents of the ice giant worlds, and found that a fluid layer may explain each planet’s strange magnetic field. By Jonathan O’Callaghan Jonathan O’Callaghan previously ...

When Voyager 2 flew by Uranus and Neptune 40 years ago, astronomers were surprised that it detected no global dipole magnetic fields, like Earth's. The explanation: the ice giants are layered and ...

We’ve got a pretty good idea about what’s beneath the surface of our nearest planetary neighbors, like Mars. But as you get farther out into the solar system, our knowledge becomes scarce. For ...

Models for the interior structures of the ice-giant planets Uranus and Neptune have two distinct, intermediate layers: an upper, water-rich convecting layer where disorganized magnetic fields are ...

They have missing "dipole magnetic fields." Here's why that's really weird. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. When NASA's Voyager 2 ...