Southwest Research Institute scientists propose a new model for the formation of compact exoplanetary systems that contain multiple rocky planets in tight orbits around their star. In this model, ...

Astronomers have made a groundbreaking discovery of three Earth-sized planets orbiting within a compact binary star system. This rare configuration, where planets circle two stars simultaneously, ...

Outer space never fails to remind us just how much we don't know. Astronomers have uncovered a lemon-shaped planet that ...

Space is full of unsolved mysteries, and a team using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have recently turned up a doozy.

EVANSTON, Ill. — Except for the fact that we call it home, for centuries astronomers didn’t have any particular reason to believe that our solar system was anything special in the universe. But, ...

Studying the orbits of thousands of exoplanets shows that large planets tend to have elliptical orbits, while smaller planets tend to have more circular orbits. This split coincides with several other ...

As planetary systems evolve, gravitational interactions between planets can fling some of them into eccentric elliptical orbits around the host star, or even out of the system altogether. Smaller ...

Planets orbiting two stars at once, a world that sparked debate over the possibility of life, and another being vaporized by ...

Our sun is about halfway through its life, which means Earth is as well. After a star exhausts its hydrogen nuclear fuel, its ...

An illustration of the solar system and the planet's orbits around the sun When you're standing on Earth's surface, it's easy to forget that our planet is hurtling around the sun at more than 67,000 ...

Theorbits of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune may have been altered by the fly-by of an enormous object from deep space, billions of years ago. According to a pre-print research paper, which is yet ...

We worked out how many trips each of the solar system's eight planets has taken around the sun over the past 4.6 billion years. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate ...