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 ...

This artist’s concept depicts one of the solar system’s inner planets slamming into Earth after being nudged on a collision course by a passing star. Such a world-shattering cataclysm is extremely ...

The hunt for worlds beyond our solar system has shifted from counting planets to confronting extremes that strain basic ...

An artist's illustration of a possible ninth planet in our solar system, hovering at the edge of our solar system. Neptune's orbit is shown as a bright ring around the Sun. Scientists in Taiwan ...

Just 4.3 light years from Earth lies a star called Alpha Centauri A, which is famous for being the nearest star that resembles our own Sun. In the popular Avatar movies, this star's system is home to ...

The possibility that there might be a large, unknown planet lurking in the outer Solar System far beyond Pluto has long been a staple of science fiction. But for the past decade, astronomers have been ...

Most astronomers would love to find a planet, but Mike Brown may be the only one proud of having killed one. Thanks to his research, Pluto, the solar system’s ninth planet, was removed from the ...

At the ragged frontier where the Sun’s influence gives way to the galaxy, a decades‑old spacecraft has stumbled into a ...

A tiny meteorite is rewriting what scientists thought they knew about the origins of our solar system. New evidence found in shavings from a meteorite known as Northwest Africa 12264 — a 50-gram (1.8 ...