An object eight times the mass of Jupiter may have swooped around the sun, coming superclose to Mars' present-day orbit before shoving four of the solar system's planets onto a different course. When ...
The origin of super-Earths and sub-Neptunes has been revealed in a system of four young planets that are dramatically losing ...
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Planetary scientists are split, oscillating between two main theories that explain the order in ...
Two physicists contemplate life on other planets in this excerpt from “Exoplanets” Michael Summers and James Trefil NASA's NExSS collaboration includes those who study Earth as a life-bearing planet ...
We have all been taught in school that planets revolve in the same direction as the Earth, i.e., in the counterclockwise direction. However, the universe never ceases to amaze us with its unexpected ...
We’ve found lots of “habitable” worlds but we don’t know what factors are needed for life. There are lots of reasons to search for planets around other stars—exoplanets. A big one is to find other ...
When my colleagues and I send them out to explore our solar system, it's important for us to understand the 3D map of our ...
Are planets in the solar system that are closer to the Sun older than the ones further away? – Gavriel, age 10, Paducah, Kentucky A cloud of collapsing gas created our Sun, the first thing to form in ...
CINCINNATI (WKRC) - Astronomers have made a groundbreaking discovery, revealing the existence of "cosmic tunnels" that connect our solar system to other stars. Using data from the eRosita X-ray ...
This story sounds wild—even incredible. Black holes! Dark matter! Jostling planets! Yet the scenario is plausible—and testable soon. Black holes the size of an atom that contain the mass of an ...
Estimating ages of specific events is one of the most difficult problems in astrophysics. While we have a precise (and probably accurate) age for the solar system, we do not have precise ages for each ...