The transition from cluster to stream offers an extraordinary opportunity for exoplanetary science. Inside a dense cluster, ...

Planetary formation and composition studies investigate the processes that govern the birth, growth and internal structure of planets and smaller bodies within a protoplanetary disk. Dust grains and ...

Ganymede has long looked like a contradiction in orbit. Jupiter’s largest moon is the only moon known to generate its own ...

WASHINGTON – Astronomers have observed a planetary system that challenges current planet formation theories, with a rocky planet that formed beyond the orbits of its gaseous neighbors, possibly after ...

When we think of asteroids, we almost immediately think of giant rocks bouncing around like the iconic chase scene in "The Empire Strikes Back," and we often hear how they are remnants from the birth ...

“We can’t get to the cores of Earth or Mars or Venus, but maybe we can get to the core of an early asteroid,” explained Erik ...

A recent astronomical discovery has shaken long-held beliefs about how planets form. For decades, scientists thought that stars much smaller than our Sun couldn't form giant planets. That theory just ...

Most of what we know about planetary cores is conjecture, on account of the fact that we live on top of ours and have extremely limited access to all of the others. Since none of the planets whizzing ...