This process, called accretion, is how everything in the solar system – planets, moons, comets and asteroids – came into being. Telescopes can see young solar systems being born.

All seven of the other planets in our solar system are about to become visible at once in a great planetary alignment – here’s how to spot the celestial show. Close. Advertisement.

Each of the planets, labeled b, c, d, and e, has a mass between 20% and 30% of Earth's, making them among the smallest yet detected using the radial velocity method.

The Sun and planets of our solar system all formed from the same cloud of gas and dust, but the planets’ compositions vary with mass and distance from our star.

NASA artist’s conception of a brown dwarf (main) and stock image of the planets in the solar system (inset). An object between 2 and 50 times the mass of Jupiter may have flown through our ...

The Solar System. The Solar System consists of the eight planets that orbit our Sun and other celestial bodies such as moons, comets, asteroids, minor planets, and dust and gas. Sun is considered ...

Venus is the hottest planet in the solar system due to its thick carbon dioxide atmosphere, trapping heat as part of a runaway greenhouse effect. To stream 13News Now on your phone, you need the ...

The planets in our solar system orbit the sun in roughly the same plane, known as the ecliptic, which is tilted relative to Earth's equator by about 23.5 degrees.

The shape of a planet's orbit is one of its fundamental properties, along with its size and distance from its host star. Earth has a nearly circular orbit, but some planets outside our solar ...

This process, called accretion, is how everything in the solar system – planets, moons, comets and asteroids – came into being. The ice line. Advertisement. Article continues below this ad.

(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d ...