Even the best telescopes can’t see exoplanets. It’s all about watching for jiggly stars, blue shifts, and transits.

Mercury is the innermost and smallest of the eight major planets in our Solar System, orbiting closest to the Sun. Though only slightly larger than Earth’s Moon, Mercury endures some of the most ...

When I was a kid, there were nine planets. Now we know of thousands! But that includes exoplanets, alien worlds that orbit alien suns. Only eight planets call our solar system home. Or there might ...

Growing up, we learned there are nine planets: Mercury, close to the sun; Venus next; Earth, where we live; the red planet, Mars; the largest planet, Jupiter; Saturn ...

Our Solar System has eight planets, a few dwarf planets and more than 200 moons. But wait. Are you seeing double? Or did every planet suddenly get a twin? Where would each planet’s double fit in? Why ...

PASADENA, Calif.–The International Astronomical Union (IAU) today downgraded the status of Pluto to that of a “dwarf planet,” a designation that will also be applied to the spherical body discovered ...

An object eight times the mass of Jupiter may have swooped around the sun, coming superclose to Mars' present-day orbit before shoving four of the solar system's planets onto a different course. When ...

James is a published author with multiple pop-history and science books to his name. He specializes in history, space, strange science, and anything out of the ordinary.View full profile James is a ...

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 ...