As planetary systems evolve, gravitational interactions between planets can fling some of them into eccentric elliptical orbits around the host star, or even out of the system altogether. Smaller ...

Theorbits of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune may have been altered by the fly-by of an enormous object from deep space, billions of years ago. According to a pre-print research paper, which is yet ...

A new study suggests that a close encounter with a massive interstellar object, possibly eight times the mass of Jupiter, may have significantly altered the orbits of the four outer planets in our ...

EVANSTON, Ill. — Except for the fact that we call it home, for centuries astronomers didn’t have any particular reason to believe that our solar system was anything special in the universe. But, ...

The trans-Neptunian object nicknamed Ammonite moves across the sky over several hours in May 2023. Its diameter is estimated to be between about 135 and 235 miles. NAOJ / ASIAA Astronomers have just ...

There are a lot of worlds beyond the orbit of Neptune. Some are dwarf planets, while many others are much smaller rocks floating in the colder edges of our Solar System. But they do not orbit randomly ...