How are the most common types of planets made? This is what a recent study published in Nature hopes to address as a team of ...

Leonardo Testi and team investigate the initial conditions for planet formation in this special astronomy focus ...

New work from Carnegie’s Alan Boss and Sandra Keiser provides surprising new details about the trigger that may have started the earliest phases of planet formation in our solar system. It is ...

Grab-and-go missions to asteroids have provided some of the most scientifically valuable samples since the Apollo ...

In 2025, astronomers uncovered more than 100 new moons orbiting planets in our solar system, an exciting discovery that could help unlock the mysteries of planetary formation. As reported by New ...

Scientists from MIT and their colleagues have estimated the lifetime of the solar nebula — a key stage during which much of the solar system evolution took shape. This new estimate suggests that the ...

Every planet in the solar system leans, some gently, some dramatically, and that tilt quietly shapes everything from our ...

Peering through a cosmic keyhole at distant baby star, astronomers may have opened a new window on the deep past of our own solar system. Weighing in at 0.6 solar mass, HOPS-315 should someday grow to ...

CREDIT: ALMA(ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/M. McClure et al. Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. Terms of ...

Over 80% of exoplanetary systems with three or more planets exhibit a "peas-in-a-pod" architecture, characterized by similarly sized planets closely spaced and orbiting near their star. A new study ...

The solar system is 4.54 billion years old, based on rock dating. Gas giants (Jupiter and Saturn) likely formed first. Ice giants (Uranus and Neptune) probably formed next. Rocky planets formed last, ...