Nearly 4.5 million years ago, two enormous, blazing stars swung close to the solar system. They did not touch the sun, but they came close enough to leave a permanent mark on the thin mist of gas that ...

Gas giants possibly developed slowly in the solar system. They developed cores layer by layer within a disk of ice and dust surrounding the early Sun. Once they were large enough, they attracted large ...

Far beyond Neptune, in the frozen depths of the Kuiper Belt, many ancient objects oddly resemble giant snowmen made of ice and rock. For years, scientists wondered how these delicate two-lobed shapes ...

For over 50 years, we thought we knew the size and shape of Jupiter, the solar system's largest planet. Now, Weizmann Institute of Science researchers have revised that knowledge using new data and ...

Scientists have simulated what happens when a solar system pushes the limits of gravity and stability — and the results redefine what “possible” means. Past a certain scale, planets begin to drift, ...