And the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. Sometimes, if the night is dark and clear enough, you can look up and see the Milky Way in its arc across the sky.

Outside our own solar system, the first moments of planet formation have never been detected, until now.

Tiny shavings from a single meteorite could completely overturn our understanding of how the solar system formed, after the space rock turned out to be older than expected. Previous research suggests ...

The Sun and planets of our solar system all formed from the same cloud of gas and dust, but the planets’ compositions vary with mass and distance from our star. This illustration shows the ...

Analysis of meteorite Northwest Africa 12264 suggests that we may have to alter our timeline of the early Solar System, potentially changing our models of planet formation.

One of the studies, published in the journal Nature Astronomy, shows that ice inside the parent asteroid melted and reacted ...

Since the first discovery of planets beyond the solar system in 1995, more than 6,000 exoplanets have been identified. Many ...

(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like ...