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, ...

Binary star systems may help giant planets form more easily by triggering planet formation far from their stars.

A planet-size object that possibly once visited the solar system may have permanently changed our cosmic neighborhood by warping the orbits of the four outer planets, a new study suggests. The ...

Astronomers in Japan have spotted a distant object orbiting the Sun far beyond Neptune, pointing to an extraordinary event that took place during the earliest years of the solar system. Astronomers ...

OK, first, let’s get the name out of the way. Scientists have cataloged this exoplanet as PSR J2322-2650 b. It’s called that because it orbits a pulsar (a rapidly rotating neutron star) designated PSR ...

As planetary systems evolve, gravitational interactions between planets can fling some of them into eccentric elliptical orbits around the host star, or even out of the system altogether. Smaller ...

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, ...