Astronomers just measured the mass of a free-floating planet without a star for the first time ...

While most planets that we are familiar with stick relatively close to their host star in a predictable orbit, some planets ...

Astronomers have weighed a lonely planet drifting through the Milky Way, using a rare cosmic alignment. How this exiled world ...

This is the provocative question at the heart of an emerging astronomical debate, wherein the discovery of rogue planets-worlds free-floating in the galaxy-appears to challenge definitions of ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Leslie Katz covers the intersection of culture, science and tech. A yellowish-orange glow bathes Phainoterra, a planet of dramatic ...

Not every large object in space forms part of a solar system. There are some big objects that exist in isolation in space, without either being a star or orbiting one. One of these, SIMP 0136, wanders ...

With sapphire waterfalls, lava rain and orbits around dead stars, these distant worlds push the limits of what’s possible.

Scientists using the James Webb telescope observed a distant exoplanet with an atmosphere of soot and diamonds, challenging ...

From ancient fire-making and dinosaur footprints to planet parades and chimp medicine, 2025 science revealed wonder, surprise ...

Researchers have found a candidate for the hypothetical Planet Nine, which could be an undiscovered giant planet way out in our solar system. However, as with all ninth planet research, the new ...

In “Citizen Science in Astronomy (Part 7),” SETI Institute astronomers Dr. Franck Marchis and Dr. Lauren Sgro highlight two rare and compelling discoveries and the crucial role of citizen scientists ...

A team of scientists at the Institute for Advanced Study School of Natural Sciences in Princeton, New Jersey, might have found a new dwarf planet, potentially leading to more evidence of a theoretical ...