Because the solar system's contents formed from a disk around the sun, we would expect the orbits of everything orbiting the sun to keep relatively close to the plane of that disk. However, some don’t ...

When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. An artist's illustration of the Voyager 1 probe travelling into the Oort Cloud. | Credit: Science ...

An accidental discovery might change how we think about one of the most mysterious structures in our solar system. The Oort Cloud, a large expanse of icy bodies revolving around the sun at a distance ...

The Oort cloud is traditionally thought of as a vast shell of perhaps trillions of icy objects encasing our solar system, serving as the final boundary between us and the dark reaches of interstellar ...

Jupiter kicked it toward Earth. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. The chunk of space rock that killed the nonavian dinosaurs may ...

The interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS has just done something no visitor from another star system has ever been caught doing: it lit up in X-rays. As its elongated orbit carries it through the inner solar ...

Humans generally like stability. We are used to our small, predictable world: Every 24 hours, we rotate on our axis; every 365 days, we revolve around the Sun. We have followed this pattern for ...

A new kind of comet that is nearly tailless has been discovered — and the surprises don't stop there. The new comet recently returned from the edge of the solar system but may have originated much ...

If the Oort Cloud is three light years away from our Sun, then it's closer to Alpha Centauri than our Sun, right? So how can it stay around our Sun if the mass of Alpha Centauri is 1.1 times the mass ...

Something is throwing icy bodies past Neptune, and scientists have an interesting idea about what it might be. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s ...