1 / 6 | Visual: In this diagram, J, S, U, and N are the solar system’s giant planets. What’s the collective name for the objects in blue?

A gap in a distant cloud has allowed astronomers to peek inside a developing solar system. Among the hot clouds of gas are signs of the first solids appearing during the first stage of planets coming ...

Scientists were able to see the moment when planets began to form around a star. Astronomers have witnessed the birth of a solar system beyond our own for the first time. An international team of ...

The survey, known as ALMA to Resolve exoKuiper belt Substructures (ARKS), focused on debris disks. Debris disks are vast belts of dust and ice left behind after planets finish forming. These ...

When most of us learn about the solar system, it seems like a pretty well-ordered place. Our sun formed first, about five billion years ago, and the planets appeared a little later. As a very general ...

The workings of our solar system are roughly the same now as they have been for millions of years. Moons circle their planets, the planets circle the sun, the sun’s magnetic fields and sunspots wax ...

Jupiter's rapid early growth dramatically reshaped our solar system, scientists now reveal. Its immense gravity acted as a cosmic divider, separating materials and influencing where planets formed.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Sara Russell at the Natural History Museum in London leads a team interested in the formation of the ...

Illustration comparing the planets of the Solar System and the Sun on the same scale. The planets are shown to scale relative to each other but their distances are not. From left to right the bodies ...

The newborn planetary system appears to be emerging 1,300 light-years away around a baby star known as HOPS-315. Planet-forming materials were first identified using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope.

A rare discovery beyond Neptune is forcing scientists to rethink early solar system dynamics and the forces that shaped ...