Prevailing theoretical models attempting to explain the formation of the solar system have assumed it to be average. Now a new study by Northwestern University astronomers -- the first to model ...

How do you picture the solar system? Most of us imagine the eight planets as colorful balls of varying sizes moving in orbits that comfortably fit within the confines of our computer screens. But ...

A new theory of the solar system's formation provides an alternative to the idea our system formed from a supernova.

Instead of just speculating about what our solar system would be like if Jupiter was a star, we decided to test it out. If you haven’t heard of it, there’s a program called "Sandbox Universe ...

To unravel the mystery of Jupiter's birth, scientists turned their attention to meteorites. These cosmic 'messengers' carry a ...

Comet 67P has a curious shape that was likely the result of a collision of two smaller comets. This simulation shows how these types of collisions can form. In particular, it reveals that even ...

They hypothesize that our solar system formed inside a massive space bubble, which was produced by a star 40 to 50 times the size of our sun. The research was published today in Astrophysical Journal.

“The fact that a simulation of planet formation produces an end state in good agreement with the observed solar system does not prove that the simulated events actually happened,” he writes.

Planetary scientists have long wondered why Mars is only about half the size and one-tenth the mass of Earth. As next-door neighbors in the inner solar system, probably formed about the same time ...

Prevailing solar system formation theories indicate that these planets should have at least started out following perfectly circular and share the same orbit.