An international team of planet hunters has found four new planets orbiting two nearby stars that are very similar to the Sun. These discoveries point the way to the detection of potentially habitable ...

General relativity helps explain the lack of planets around tight binary stars by driving orbital resonances that eject or destroy close-in worlds. This process naturally creates a “desert” of ...

Astronomers have discovered the earliest seeds of rocky planets forming in the gas around a baby sun-like star, providing a precious peek into the dawn of our own solar system. It’s an unprecedented ...

Alfredo has a PhD in Astrophysics and a Master's in Quantum Fields and Fundamental Forces from Imperial College London. Alfredo has a PhD in Astrophysics and a Master's in Quantum Fields and ...

Astronomers have long wondered why planets orbiting two stars like the iconic Tatooine in Star Wars are so rare. You would expect them to be everywhere, really. Most stars form with planets, and a ...

The International Astronomical Union defines a planet as a celestial body that orbits the sun, is massive enough that gravity has forced it into a spherical shape, and has cleared away other objects ...

As of 2025, astronomers have identified at least 14 stars within 10 light-years of the Sun. After the Alpha Centauri system, the next closest is Barnard’s Star, a solo red dwarf roughly 6 light-years ...