Southwest Research Institute scientists propose a new model for the formation of compact exoplanetary systems that contain multiple rocky planets in tight orbits around their star. In this model, ...

Astronomers studying a dim red dwarf star called LHS 1903 have found a four-planet system with an architecture that defies the standard rules of how rocky worlds take shape. The outermost planet in ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. An artist's impression of a planetary system with four planets, around a small red star, called LHS1903 with a large reddish-brown ...

OK, first, let’s get the name out of the way. Scientists have cataloged this exoplanet as PSR J2322-2650 b. It’s called that because it orbits a pulsar (a rapidly rotating neutron star) designated PSR ...

The shape of a planet's orbit is one of its fundamental properties, along with its size and distance from its host star. Earth has a nearly circular orbit, but some planets outside our solar system, ...

Hot Jupiters, giant planets that circle their stars in just a few days, have long defied simple explanations of how planetary systems grow and evolve. A new tidal “clock” hidden in their orbits is now ...

AUSTIN, Texas — University of Texas at Austin astronomers William Cochran and Michael Endl, working with graduate students Robert Wittenmyer and Jacob Bean, have used the 9.2-meter Hobby-Eberly ...

The newly discovered planet TIC 241249530 b has the most highly elliptical, or eccentric, orbit of any known planet. It appears to be a juvenile planet that is in the midst of becoming a hot Jupiter, ...

Studying the orbits of thousands of exoplanets shows that large planets tend to have elliptical orbits, while smaller planets tend to have more circular orbits. This split coincides with several other ...

In theory, it could happen – one of the very first solutions to the three-body problem was this scenario. But it is very unlikely to be stable over time. You need the stars to have near equal mass and ...