Scientists from MIT and their colleagues have estimated the lifetime of the solar nebula — a key stage during which much of the solar system evolution took shape. This new estimate suggests that the ...

Are planets in the solar system that are closer to the Sun older than the ones further away? – Gavriel, age 10, Paducah, Kentucky A cloud of collapsing gas created our Sun, the first thing to form in ...

Everything we know about the formation of solar systems might be wrong, says University of Florida astronomy professor Jian Ge and his postdoc, Bo Ma. They’ve discovered the first “binary-binary” – ...

Scientists have gotten very good at measuring the age of things using a variety of techniques, ranging from counting the rings on trees to using highly advanced radiocarbon dating, and much more. When ...

The solar system is 4.54 billion years old, based on rock dating. Gas giants (Jupiter and Saturn) likely formed first. Ice giants (Uranus and Neptune) probably formed next. Rocky planets formed last, ...

Mercury has long baffled astronomers because it defies much of what we know about planet formation. A new space mission ...

Astronomers have spotted a planetary system being conceived from the swirl of gas and dust surrounding a star — giving us an unprecedented, real-time look at how our solar system would’ve formed some ...

ESS2.C: The Roles of Water in Earth’s Surface Processes Water is found in the ocean, rivers, lakes, and ponds. Water exists as solid ice and in liquid form. ESS2.A: Earth Materials and Systems (3-5) ...

Illustration comparing the planets of the Solar System and the Sun on the same scale. The planets are shown to scale relative to each other but their distances are not. From left to right the bodies ...

As telescopes have become more powerful, it’s turned out our solar system is not the only game in town: There are millions of other planets out there in the galaxy. But we’re still teasing out clues ...