Southwest Research Institute scientists propose a new model for the formation of compact exoplanetary systems that contain multiple rocky planets in tight orbits around their star. In this model, ...

Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more. Astronomers have ...

As planetary systems evolve, gravitational interactions between planets can fling some of them into eccentric elliptical orbits around the host star, or even out of the system altogether. Smaller ...

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, ...

Astronomers Identified a Lemon-Shaped Planet Displaying a Feature 'Unlike Anything Observed Before' ...

Scientists using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope have observed a rare type of exoplanet, or planet outside our solar system, whose atmospheric composition challenges our understanding of how it ...

Studying the orbits of thousands of exoplanets shows that large planets tend to have elliptical orbits, while smaller planets tend to have more circular orbits. This split coincides with several other ...

Exoplanet PSR J2322-2650b, orbiting a pulsar, possesses an unprecedented helium-and-carbon-dominated atmosphere, characterized by molecular carbon (C3 and C2) and soot clouds, a composition unlike any ...

This illustration shows an exoplanet orbiting around two brown dwarfs –– objects bigger than gas-giant planets but too small to be proper stars. ESO/M. Kornmesser Astronomers have discovered a ...

Astronomers have long searched for life within a rather narrow ring around a star, the "habitable zone," where a planet ...

Astronomers are closing in on what looks like a colossal missing piece of the Solar System, a giant planet that appears to ...