When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. A super-Earth basks in the glow of its star in this artist's impression. Is the world habitable ...

As next-generation telescopes map this outer frontier, astronomers are bracing for discoveries that could reveal hidden planets, strange structures, and clues to the solar system’s chaotic youth.

Out beyond the orbit of Neptune lies an expansive ring of ancient relics, dynamical enigmas, and possibly a hidden planet—or two. The Kuiper Belt, a region of frozen debris about 30 to 50 times ...

Astronomers have captured some of the most detailed images of debris discs—rings of leftover dust, gas, and rocks that circle a star—from fully formed, "teenage" planetary systems. And those images, ...

A Hidden Planet: The Missing Piece? To solve these puzzles, researchers have proposed the existence of an undiscovered Earth-like planet in the Kuiper Belt. In a recent study, Dr. Patryk Sofia Lykawka ...

There's a lot more to Earth than meets the eye. Far from being just a roundish rock barreling through space, our planet is composed of several layers held together by intense forces of gravity. Our ...

Astronomers have long struggled to find young planets hidden inside the thick clouds of gas and dust that swirl around new stars. These swirling clouds—called protoplanetary discs—are the birthplaces ...

Astronomers used the James Webb Space Telescope to observe the first asteroid belt seen outside of our solar system and unveiled some cosmic surprises along the way. The space observatory focused on ...

Astronomers are closing in on one of the most tantalizing possibilities in planetary science, evidence that a previously unknown world may be lurking in the outer reaches of the solar system. The ...

Astronomers have uncovered a massive hidden planet and a rare “failed star” by combining ultra-precise space data with some of the sharpest ground-based images ever taken. Using the Subaru Telescope ...