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 ...

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Hayabusa2 mission returned uncontaminated primitive asteroid samples to Earth. A comprehensive analysis of 16 particles from the asteroid Ryugu revealed many ...

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 ...

Astronomers have spotted a planetary system being conceived from the swirl of gas and dust surrounding a star — giving us an unprecedented, real-time look at how our solar system would've formed some ...

Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story: Observations of the young HOPS-315 star system show an environment analogous to what our own nascent Solar System would have looked like billions of ...

About 4.5 billion years ago, a colossal impact between the young Earth and a mysterious planetary body called Theia changed everything—reshaping Earth, forming the Moon, and scattering clues across ...

A nearby star-forming region may explain the mystery of tiny grains from beyond the solar system. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

The Oort cloud, a theoretical spherical shell surrounding our solar system, extends from approximately 1,000-2,000 AU to potentially 100,000 AU, halfway to Alpha Centauri. Its existence is inferred ...

Super-Earths and sub-Neptunes, planets with sizes between Earth and Neptune, constitute approximately one-third of known exoplanets but are absent in our solar system. Their prevalence elsewhere and ...

Modern astronomy is giving us unprecedented views of the asteroids, comets, and other small bodies that litter our cosmic home. These planetary leftovers offer clues to our creation—and potential ...

A team of scientists undertake a comprehensive analysis of samples returned from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Hayabusa2 mission and provide invaluable insights into the formation and ...