A new study suggests that a close encounter with a massive interstellar object, possibly eight times the mass of Jupiter, may have significantly altered the orbits of the four outer planets in our ...

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 ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. An award-winning reporter writing about stargazing and the night sky. The solar system suddenly has a new member. A new object ...

Astronomers surveying the outer solar system have revealed that a rare object far beyond Neptune is moving in sync with the eighth planet in an unexpected way. Called 2020 VN40 and first discovered in ...

If microscopic black holes born a fraction of a second after the Big Bang exist, as some researchers suspect, then at least one may fly through the solar system per decade, generating tiny ...

Learn about the Oort cloud, a vast area beyond the inner solar system that is believed to contain icy objects arranged in a spiral shape. At the edge of our solar system, a host of large, icy bodies ...

The search for an unknown planet in our solar system has inspired astronomers for more than a century. Now, a recent study suggests a potential new candidate, which the paper’s authors have dubbed ...

Astronomers have discovered a new world circling the outer edges of our solar system. Researchers using the Subaru Telescope, located in Hawaii, spotted a small, distant object called 2023 KQ14 far ...