Solar system
The solar system is a gravitationally bound system of the sun and the orbiting objects around it. The Solar System formed 4.6 billion years ago from the gravitational collapse of a giant interstellar molecular cloud.
It is located in an outer spiral arm of the Milky Way galaxy. There are eight planets with about 210 known planetary satellites, countless asteroids, comets, meteoroids, and other icy bodies.
The four inner system planets – Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars – are called terrestrial planets because of their rocky surfaces. The four giant planets of the outer system – Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are substantially more massive than the terrestrials.
Astronomers observed the aftermath of DART’s asteroid impact
Using ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), two teams of astronomers have observed the aftermath of the collision between NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART)...
Analysis of the Ryugu asteroid sample reveals it is organic-rich
Asteroid Ryugu has a rich complement of organic molecules.
Astronomers identified unknown class water-rich asteroids
Small planets originate from the edge of our solar system.
There are, in fact, four types of planetary systems
These four classes are 'similar', 'ordered', 'anti-ordered,' and 'mixed'.
Scientists have discovered a new ring system in our Solar System
The ring system orbits much further out than is typical for other ring systems.
Moon dust could help protect the earth from climate change
Could space dust help protect the earth from climate change?
Hubble, for the first time, directly measured the mass of a lone white dwarf
The unique observation yields insights into theories of the structure and composition of white dwarfs.
Darkest ever view of a dense interstellar cloud
The observations have revealed the composition of a virtual treasure chest of ices from the early universe.
Ryugu asteroid could help us learn about how the solar system formed
Understanding the chemical composition of our solar system as it existed in its infancy.
Kepler’s first exoplanet is spiraling toward its doom
The doomed world appears destined to spiral closer and closer to its expanding star until they collide.
Two potentially habitable exo-Earths discovered around a star near the Sun
With these two, we now know 7 in planetary systems quite near to the Sun.