Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. An award-winning reporter writing about stargazing and the night sky. The solar system suddenly has a new member. A new object ...

Astronomers are closing in on one of the most tantalizing possibilities in planetary science, evidence that a previously ...

If you look up on a clear night, the brightest and largest object in the sky will probably be the moon. And unless you have a decent telescope, it is the only natural satellite you can see with your ...

There could be a ninth planet in our solar system that's lying in wait to be discovered - and no, it's not Pluto. Our solar ...

Mercury has long baffled astronomers because it defies much of what we know about planet formation. A new space mission ...

While Earth spins in the same direction as the sun, that's not the case for every planet in the solar system. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s ...

And the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. Sometimes, if the night is dark and clear enough, you can look up and see the Milky Way in its arc across the sky.

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, ...

There’s a bit of a paradox about our galaxy: it’s both jam-packed with stars and cavernously empty. The Milky Way is crowded in the sense that it holds hundreds of billions of stars, as well as ...