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, ...

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

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 ...

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 ...

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, ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Astronomers have identified a quartet of small rocky planets orbiting Barnard's star - one of our closest stellar neighbors - though they concluded that all of them are too hot ...