The solar system is 4.54 billion years old, based on rock dating. Gas giants (Jupiter and Saturn) likely formed first. Ice giants (Uranus and Neptune) probably formed next. Rocky planets formed last, ...

Scientists from MIT and their colleagues have estimated the lifetime of the solar nebula — a key stage during which much of the solar system evolution took shape. This new estimate suggests that the ...

Ever since scientists started looking at meteorites with microscopes, they’ve been puzzled–and fascinated–by what’s inside. Most meteorites are made of tiny beads of glass that date back to the ...

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft captured this high-resolution enhanced color view of Pluto that is inserted beneath the Short Wave logo. The image combines blue, red and infrared images taken by the ...

Pluto hasn't been a planet for almost 20 years. In the early 2000s, scientists discovered several objects of a similar size to Pluto. So, during the summer of 2006, members of the International ...

Though Pluto has formally been considered a dwarf planet for almost two decades, it still has many lessons left for planetary scientists —... Pluto isn’t a planet — but it gives us clues for how the ...

Discovery of oxygen raises new questions about how solar system formed. In this undated photo, Rosetta finds oxygen on comet 67P. ESA/Rosetta/NavCam – CC BY-SA IGO 3.0 — -- The European Space ...

You're probably familiar with how the solar system looks today. There are eight officially recognized planets located more or less on the same plane, orbiting the sun. But have you ever given a ...

'We're showing that, everywhere we look now, there was some sort of magnetic field that was responsible for bringing mass to where the sun and planets were forming.' When you purchase through links on ...

Hot Jupiters were once cosmic oddities, but unraveling how they moved so close to their stars has remained a stubborn mystery. Scientists have long debated whether these giants were violently flung ...

Brad E Tucker does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond ...