This process, called accretion, is how everything in the solar system – planets, moons, comets and asteroids – came into being. Telescopes can see young solar systems being born.

Our solar system’s origin story spans billions of years and involves clouds of gas, cosmic collisions, and planetary migrations that shaped the worlds we know today. While it may seem intuitive ...

How Did the Solar System Form? The tale of our sun may begin with another star: a predecessor whose fiery death brought about the birth of our solar system.

In our own solar system, the very first solid material to condense near Earth’s present location can be found locked within ancient meteorites.

Back to Article List Astronomers see a new solar system forming for the first time Planets are being created in the disk of material surrounding a baby star in Orion.

On the scale of a human life, nothing much seems to happen. But on a cosmic timescale, our humble solar system is a wildly exciting place: an action movie played in extreme slow motion.

Analysis of an ancient meteorite suggests that rocky planets both near and distant from the sun may have formed at the same time, challenging current models of our solar system’s evolution.

An accidental discovery in an astronomy show offers researchers a new clue about the mysterious Oort Cloud, a large expanse of icy bodies revolving around the sun.

The solar system consists of eight planets, several dwarf planets, hundreds of moons, and billions of asteroids, comets and meteoroids.

Astronomers have observed an object that originated from beyond our solar system, thought to be an interstellar comet, speeding through our celestial neighborhood.