Across the galaxy, astronomers now see that planetary systems fall into four broad classes, and our own solar system, part of the rare Ordered group, is only one of them. At the same time, discoveries ...
There have been questions about a mysterious ninth planet in our solar system for nearly a decade. Pluto was unseated as number nine in 2006. Now, a group of international researchers say they may ...
A recent research paper suggests that a planet may exist far beyond Neptune — less than 20 years after the previous ninth planet, Pluto, was demoted. That research paper, accepted last month for ...
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 ...
On August 24, 2006, our solar system lost a planet. It wasn't by cataclysmic destruction, but rather by the vote of the International Astronomical Union, which declared that Pluto, considered the ...
A possible new dwarf planet has been discovered at the edge of our solar system, so far-flung that it takes around 25,000 years to complete one orbit around the sun. The object, known as 2017 OF201, ...
This artist’s concept depicts one of the solar system’s inner planets slamming into Earth after being nudged on a collision course by a passing star. Such a world-shattering cataclysm is extremely ...
The search for an unknown planet in our solar system has inspired astronomers for more than a century. Now, a recent study suggests a potential new candidate, which the paper’s authors have dubbed ...
A possible cousin of Pluto seems to be circling the far reaches of the solar system. The dwarf planet candidate 2017 OF201 travels in a superwide orbit, with the sun relatively near one end of its ...
Astronomers have discovered the earliest seeds of rocky planets forming in the gas around a baby sun-like star, providing a precious peek into the dawn of our own solar system. It’s an unprecedented ...