Are planets in the solar system that are closer to the Sun older than the ones further away? – Gavriel, age 10, Paducah, Kentucky A cloud of collapsing gas created our Sun, the first thing to form in ...

The giant planets weren't always where we find them today. Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune formed in a more compact configuration and later underwent a violent reshuffling that scattered them to ...

When 'Oumuamua traversed our solar system in 2017 it was the first confirmed Interstellar Object (ISO) to do so. Then in 2019, Comet 2l/Borisov did the same thing. These are the only two confirmed ...

Astronomers still aren't exactly sure how planets get their start. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. If you want to build a planet, ...

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, ...

How can Uranus teach us about exoplanets? This is what a recent study presented at the 56th annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) Division for Planetary Sciences (DPS) hopes to ...

This story is part of Short Wave's series Space Camp about all the weird, wonderful things happening in the universe. Check out the rest of the series. If you were born in the last century you might ...

Our solar system’s origin story spans billions of years and involves clouds of gas, cosmic collisions, and planetary migrations that shaped the worlds we know today. While it may seem intuitive that ...

TEMPE, Ariz. a Quick: What’s the order of the planets in the solar system? Need a little help? Maybe the following mnemonic rings a bell: “My Very Educated Mother Just Served Up Nine Pizzas.” It’s ...

Uranus and Neptune are the two furthest planets in the Solar System and have been visited only once by human spacecraft – by Voyager 2 over 30 years ago – so there is a lot about them that we do not ...

The Sun is an incandescent but benevolent dictator. For billions of years, it’s kept our star system well organized through the influence of its powerful gravity. All the planets revolve around it on ...

All of our solar system’s planets are lining up in the night sky at once this week. This extraordinary celestial event will see the sky scattered with seven visible planets in what is known as a great ...