Star and planet formation has largely been considered separate, sequential processes. But in a new study, scientists at Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) have modeled a different scenario where ...

A massive interstellar object passing through our solar system during its formative years likely altered the orbits of planets into trajectories observed today, a new study says. Interactions with ...

As planetary systems evolve, gravitational interactions between planets can fling some of them into eccentric elliptical orbits around the host star, or even out of the system altogether. Smaller ...

Chris Impey receives funding from the National Science Foundation. Planets orbit their parent stars while separated by enormous distances – in our solar system, planets are like grains of sand in a ...