On July 1, 2025, a telescope in Chile caught a faint smudge drifting across the sky. Within weeks, astronomers confirmed it was not from around here. The object, now designated 3I/ATLAS, is only the third interstellar visitor ever identified,

A possible cousin of Pluto seems to be circling the far reaches of the solar system. The dwarf planet candidate 2017 OF201 travels in a superwide orbit, with the sun relatively near one end of its huge elliptical path, researchers report in a paper ...

Rather than slowly condensing over millions of years, the first building blocks of Earth and other planets may have formed rapidly in a chaotic disk at the dawn of the solar system The triumph of NASA’s first crewed lunar mission in a half-century is a reminder of what the moon really means for Earth—and why we’re going back

Scientists are grappling with a cosmic mystery: why does the Universe behave differently on massive scales compared to our own solar system? While distant galaxies reveal clear signs of something bending the rules of gravity—often attributed to dark energy or a hidden “fifth force”—everything nearby seems to follow Einstein’s playbook perfectly.

The presence of deuterium, an isotope of hydrogen, in 3I/ATLAS suggests the interstellar comet formed in a much colder place before our solar system existed.

A newly discovered interstellar comet is hurtling around us, only the third interloper object to be observed in our solar system. It is not expected to pose an impact risk to Earth, but telescopes around the world have been able to detect the mystery visitor.

Rather than slowly condensing over millions of years, the first building blocks of Earth and other planets may have formed rapidly in a chaotic disk at the dawn of the solar system

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 are: the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter ...