Studying the orbits of thousands of exoplanets shows that large planets tend to have elliptical orbits, while smaller planets tend to have more circular orbits. This split coincides with several other ...

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 ...

Earth has progressed through long periods of colder and warmer climatic conditions in large part because the planet, on its elliptical orbit around our nearest star, shifts slightly both in terms of ...

Driving a spacecraft around a planet isn’t anything like driving on a planet. A physicist explains orbital navigation.

The Sun is an incandescent but benevolent dictator. For billions of years, it’s kept our star system well organized through the influence of its powerful gravity. All the planets revolve around it on ...

Why do all planets in our solar system orbit the Sun the same way? This documentary unravels the cosmic forces, from the ...

James is a published author with multiple pop-history and science books to his name. He specializes in history, space, strange science, and anything out of the ordinary.View full profile James is a ...

The newly discovered planet TIC 241249530 b has the most highly elliptical, or eccentric, orbit of any known planet. It appears to be a juvenile planet that is in the midst of becoming a hot Jupiter, ...

A sunlike star next door called Alpha Centauri A may host a huge planet, researchers report in two studies in press in Astrophysical Journal Letters. The planet candidate orbits in its star’s ...