Artist impression of the planetary system with four planets,around a small red star,called LHS1903. Caption: Astronomers have long thought solar systems follow a simple pattern similar to our own: ...

We know that our Solar System is not the blueprint for all planetary systems out there. There are gas giant planets orbiting closer to their stars than Mercury, and rocky worlds much larger than Earth ...

A closer look at the planets around a star called LHS 1903 may just flip our understanding of how planetary systems form.

Astronomers have found a distant world that challenges planetary formation theory, with a rocky planet where gas giants should be.

A newly studied solar system breaks the usual planet pattern, raising fresh questions about how rocky and gas planets form.

The textbook picture of how planets form—serene, flat disks of cosmic dust—has just received a significant cosmic twist. Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest sci-tech news updates. New research, ...

A planetary system 116 light-years from Earth has a peculiar pattern. It could flip the script on how planets form, scientists say.

Typically, from what astronomers have gathered thus far, star systems follow a tidy logic: small, rocky worlds huddle close to the warmth of their star, while massive gas giants bloat up in the colder ...

Gas giants possibly developed slowly in the solar system. They developed cores layer by layer within a disk of ice and dust ...

In the swirling clouds of gas and dust that surround newborn stars, planets begin to form. These planet-forming disks are rich with clues about how worlds like Earth come to be. Until now, scientists ...

Gas giants are large planets mostly composed of helium and/or hydrogen. Although these planets have dense cores, they don't ...

How did a planet this big form around a star this small? An international team of astronomers, including researchers from the University of Liège and collaborators in UK, Chile, the USA, and Europe, ...