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, ...

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 ...

Astronomers have long searched for life within a rather narrow ring around a star, the "habitable zone," where a planet ...

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 ...

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, ...

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 ...

This illustration shows an exoplanet orbiting around two brown dwarfs –– objects bigger than gas-giant planets but too small to be proper stars. ESO/M. Kornmesser Astronomers have discovered a ...

Exoplanet PSR J2322-2650b, orbiting a pulsar, possesses an unprecedented helium-and-carbon-dominated atmosphere, characterized by molecular carbon (C3 and C2) and soot clouds, a composition unlike any ...

After studying thousands of computer simulations of the solar system, researchers at Rice University and the Planetary Science Institute think there’s a 40% chance an elusive “Planet Nine” or “Planet ...

Planet 9 sits at the edge of scientific imagination, promising either an epic expansion of the Solar System or a lesson in ...

Planet hunters have grown used to strange worlds, but a handful of discoveries now point to something even more radical: giant planets that loop around their stars on orbits so skewed they almost defy ...