The fourth planet in the system is a rocky world, while the second and third ones are gas planets.

A newly studied solar system breaks the usual planet pattern, raising fresh questions about how rocky and gas planets form.

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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, ...

When the Sun runs out of hydrogen fuel and expands into a red giant, it will eventually encompass the innermost planets of the solar system, out to about Earth’s orbit. Being closer to our enlarged ...

An object eight times the mass of Jupiter may have swooped around the sun, coming superclose to Mars' present-day orbit before shoving four of the solar system's planets onto a different course. When ...

A quest for life in the cosmos has given astronomer and astrobiologist Dr. Aomawa Shields new perspective on a meaningful life on Earth. The following is an excerpt from Life on Other Planets: A ...