The Earth grew by the collisional accretion of tens of Moon- to Mars-sized planetary embryos, themselves formed from the collisions of many smaller rocky bodies. The interiors of these planetary ...

Astronomers have found evidence of a process that supports an alternative, more rapid approach to planetary formation, more top down than bottom up. By Katrina Miller When it comes to making a planet, ...

Rocky planets, such as Earth, are born when small particles smash together to form larger, planet-sized clusters in a disk, but researchers are less sure about how gas-giant planets form. Is core ...

For scientists who spend time thinking about how planets form, life would be simpler if gas giants like Jupiter and Saturn didn’t exist. According to the standard model of planet formation, called ...

When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. An artist's impression of the red dwarf star TOI-6894 (foreground) and its giant planet orbiting ...

While we understand that planets can form relatively close to their host stars by way of generating a core first and then accreting more gas and dust material over time (known as core accretion), ...

Scientists peering into the atmosphere of a giant planet 130 light years away believe their findings bolster one theory of how solar systems form. The planet, orbiting the star HR 8799, is part of a ...

Astronomers have discovered an extrasolar planet with the largest core of any known planet. The discovery is especially exciting to planet formation theorists, because it provides extremely strong ...

Score one for the core accretion theory. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. A massive, cold clump of material in the heart of the ...

Astronomers have made the most detailed examination yet of the atmosphere of a Jupiter-like planet beyond our Solar System. A spectrum reveals that the carbon to oxygen ratio is consistent with the ...

On one side of the ring stands Doug “Rocky Core” Lin. On the other side stands Alan “Jupiter in a Hurry” Boss. For more than a decade, Lin, a theorist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, has ...

Like a family in which short parents have tall children, a tiny red dwarf star is defying our understanding of how planets form by existing alongside a giant exoplanet. Giant planets are not rare per ...