A newborn planetary system is forming around HOPS-315, a protostar (one that recently formed) that sits some 1,300 light-years away in the constellation Orion the Hunter. This star isn't in the ...

Astronomers have been identifying protoplanetary disks for many decades—structures that evolve into solar systems like our own—and they have been found by the hundreds throughout the Milky Way, ...

Astrophysicists are mapping a vast, hidden structure in the gas around the Sun that behaves like a tunnel carved through ...

Scientists were able to see the moment when planets began to form around a star. Astronomers have witnessed the birth of a solar system beyond our own for the first time. An international team of ...

When most of us learn about the solar system, it seems like a pretty well-ordered place. Our sun formed first, about five billion years ago, and the planets appeared a little later. As a very general ...

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 ...

When planetary rings are mentioned, the image of Saturn immediately comes to mind. However, this celestial feature is not exclusive to gas giants and appears in much more unexpected places in the ...

Astronomers have revealed new research showing that millions of new solar system objects are likely to be detected by a brand-new facility, which is expected to come online later this year.

Aliza Chasan is a Digital Content Producer for "60 Minutes" and CBSNews.com. She has previously written for outlets including PIX11 News, The New York Daily News, Inside Edition and DNAinfo. Aliza ...

1 / 6 | Visual: In this diagram, J, S, U, and N are the solar system’s giant planets. What’s the collective name for the objects in blue?