A stunning eruption unleashed by the sun two years ago is providing clues about how stars form, scientists say. On June 7, 2011, the sun blasted out an enormous cloud of superheated plasma called a ...

The cosmos is a void dotted with stars and an ever-increasing number of newly-observed planets beyond our solar system. Yet, how these stars and planets formed out of clouds of interstellar dust and ...

Our solar system's planets may have formed at differing times, determined by shock waves flowing from the young sun, one astronomer suggests. This theory posits that Earth is one of the youngest ...

It’s textbook astronomy. Planets form little by little, as material slowly congeals within the disk of gas, dust, and ice known to swaddle young stars. First, gravity gathers together bits of dust, ...

Around 4.6 billion years ago, a young, hot star was born. The Sun formed from a cloud of gas and dust, and over time planetary bodies, including Earth and Mars, came to be. It’s unlikely that ...

Berkeley – Astrophysicists at the University of California, Berkeley, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have exploded one of two competing theories about how stars form inside immense ...

According to the results of a new study, stars orbiting near the centers of massive clusters have a much harder time forming planets than those located at the edge. The discovery was made possible by ...

Astronomers have observed with unprecedented precision a massive star in the midst of cosmic feasting. This discovery offers a unique window into the growth mechanisms of these giants. Located about 2 ...