A stunning eruption unleashed by the sun two years ago is providing clues about how stars form, scientists say. On June 7, 2011, the sun blasted out an enormous cloud of superheated plasma called a ...

Our solar system's planets may have formed at differing times, determined by shock waves flowing from the young sun, one astronomer suggests. This theory posits that Earth is one of the youngest ...

The cosmos is a void dotted with stars and an ever-increasing number of newly-observed planets beyond our solar system. Yet, how these stars and planets formed out of clouds of interstellar dust and ...

Around 4.6 billion years ago, a young, hot star was born. The Sun formed from a cloud of gas and dust, and over time planetary bodies, including Earth and Mars, came to be. It’s unlikely that ...

Starting from the upper left and moving clockwise from large to small scales: upper left —"spiral-like" system; upper right — "bar-like" structure; lower right — rotating infalling envelope; lower ...

Some 4.5 billion years ago, the solar system was a nursery full of planetary toddlers. Around the young sun swirled a disk of gas and dust left over from the solar system’s birth. Studded within the ...

Astronomers have observed with unprecedented precision a massive star in the midst of cosmic feasting. This discovery offers a unique window into the growth mechanisms of these giants. Located about 2 ...

The Earth formed relatively quickly from the cloud of dust and gas around the Sun, trapping water and gases in the planet's mantle, based on neon isotopes from the depths of the Earth and deep space.