The search for life beyond Earth is a key driver of modern astronomy and planetary science. The U.S. is building multiple major telescopes and planetary probes to advance this search. However, the ...

The Sun's formation caused temperature differences in the surrounding disk of gas and dust. Inner, hotter regions formed rocky planets from less volatile elements. Outer, colder regions allowed ...

Lucas Brefka receives funding from a NASA Exoplanet Research Program grant. Christopher Palma does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would ...

A team of researchers is challenging our understanding of the Solar System planets interior. The composition of Uranus and ...

Pluto was reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006. Our solar system may have a ninth planet after all, researchers say. The possibility that an additional planet may be hidden far into the solar system ...

Our solar system is a smashing success. A new study suggests that from its earliest period — even before the last of its nebular gas had been consumed — Earth’s solar system and its planets looked ...

This article was originally featured on The Conversation. Are planets in the solar system that are closer to the Sun older than the ones further away? – Gavriel, age 10, Paducah, Kentucky A cloud of ...

There are 8 planets in our solar system. The planets orbit the Sun in elliptical trajectories, and they are all different in size, composition, temperature, and characteristics. The planets can be ...

Carbon dioxide has been detected on a planet outside our solar system for the first time. The gas has been observed directly by the James Webb Space Telescope on four exoplanets, all belonging to the ...

When I was a kid, there were nine planets. Now we know of thousands! But that includes exoplanets, alien worlds that orbit alien suns. Only eight planets call our solar system home. Or there might ...