THE question of the origin of the solar system is one that has been a source ... to the standard forms of Laplace's hypothesis, and its history would serve as a hypothesis intermediate between ...

For about 4.5 billion years, our planet has circled the sun on a stable, rhythmic path. Each of Earth's orbits takes ...

The asteroid impact in Mexico left deposits similar to those made by other asteroids from the outer solar system.

Using the Subaru Telescope, astronomers have identified previously unknown celestial bodies in the outer Solar System, ...

Scientists thought it might be nothing more than a hunk of rock on the outskirts of the solar system. But when NASA's New Horizons mission performed history's first flyby of the Pluto system on ...

Many of the asteroids in the solar system melted early on in their history to form an iron core and rocky mantle. During melting the heavier material, metal, sinks to the centre while the lighter rock ...

But arguably, it's the ugly duckling, ancient asteroids that are providing us with a better understanding of how our solar system evolved from a monstrosity of gas and dust into the protosolar ...

"I think the discovery of distant objects and the determination of their orbital distribution are important as a stepping stone to understanding the formation history of the solar system ...

There have been five spacecraft that have flown to the outer solar system (including New Horizons), but New Horizons is the ...

Long after the planets of the Solar System formed, catastrophic collisions continued, with a climax about 4 billion years ago during an interval called the Late Heavy Bombardment. The scars of ...

The history of eclipses not only connects us with humans across time—sharing that sense of wonder at our place in the cosmos—but also sheds light on the subtle motions in our solar system.

Both asteroids and comets were formed early in the history of the solar system about 4.5 billion years ago. Both asteroids and comets orbit the Sun.