A planetary system 116 light-years from Earth has a peculiar pattern. It could flip the script on how planets form, scientists say.

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Dianne Plummer is an Energy Consultant and Certified Energy Manager. Rooftop solar has become one of the fastest-growing clean ...

Explore the story of our solar system’s formation, tracing how a vast cloud of gas and dust collapsed under gravity, collisions, and angular momentum to create a thin, spinning protolanetary disc.

A newly studied solar system breaks the usual planet pattern, raising fresh questions about how rocky and gas planets form.

Illustration comparing the planets of the Solar System and the Sun on the same scale. The planets are shown to scale relative to each other but their distances are not. From left to right the bodies ...

Simulations reveal that Jupiter’s rapid growth disrupted the early solar system, creating rings where new planetesimals formed much later than expected. These late-forming bodies match the ages and ...