Learn why only 14 out of over 6,000 exoplanets orbit two stars, and how Einstein’s general theory of relativity may be to blame.

When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Artwork depicting how water, both regular and heavy, comes from giant molecular clouds and is ...

Protoplanetary disks are the birthplaces of planets, but few discoveries have stretched scientific expectations like IRAS 23077+6707. Using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have confirmed ...

Many of the most interesting bodies in our Solar System aren’t planets, but the moons that orbit them. They have active volcanoes, hydrocarbon oceans, geysers, and moon-wide oceans buried under icy ...

The swirling disk around a young star has been found to contain an inventory of seventeen complex organic molecules enough to ...

Astronomers using ALMA have discovered that planet-forming discs are not flat and serene but subtly warped, reshaping our understanding of how planets form. These slight tilts, similar to those seen ...

Astronomers have found thousands of exoplanets around single stars, but few around binary stars—even though both types of stars are equally common. Physicists can now explain the dearth.

Cold cosmic dust grains can link amino acids into protein‑like chains in deep space, suggesting life’s chemistry may begin ...

"We've often seen the 'baby pictures' of planets forming, but until now, the 'teenage years' have been a missing link." ...

New research suggests that essential components of life may assemble in interstellar space long before planets or oceans ...