The comet is on what’s known as a hyperbolic trajectory, which means that it doesn’t follow an orbital path around the sun. It’s also traveling at about 137,000 miles per hour, which is too fast for the comet to be slowed down by the sun’s gravity.

The rare interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS is under intense scrutiny as it passes through the solar system. Spacecraft like Hera, Europa Clipper, and JUICE are positioned to observe its unique 56,000 km ion tail.

This month, if you should incline your head slightly upwards at night, you will receive a treat in the form of six of the eight planets visible in the skyline. Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun (and all the other planets), will not make the show in ...

There are eight planets in the solar system, and each travels on its own path around the sun. But of these planets, which is nearest to the sun? Mercury is a strange little world. There are some craters on its surface that never see sunlight. It also has ...

A recently identified asteroid is capturing astronomers' attention with its frantic race around the Sun. Discovered under unique observation conditions, this celestial body named 2025 SC79 stands

The single nearest star to the Sun—which is to say, the closest star moving independent from a star system—has at least one exoplanet, according to a team of astronomers that recently scrutinized the heavenly body. The team’s research—published ...

(CNN) — The Parker Solar Probe will zoom by the sun on Tuesday during a record-breaking flyby, coming within 3.8 million miles (6.1 million kilometers) of the solar surface during humanity’s closest approach to a star. The uncrewed spacecraft will fly ...

Astronomers have discovered a planet orbiting the closest solo star to the solar system, known as Barnard's star. The newly discovered exoplanet has around half the mass of Venus, which classifies it as a "sub-Earth." The exoplanet, designated Barnard b ...

(Reuters) - Scientists have discovered a planet that appears to be similar to Earth circling the star closest to the sun, potentially a major step in the quest to find out if life exists elsewhere in the universe, research published on Wednesday showed.

Interstellar object 3I/ATLAS is expected to reach its perihelion, or the closest point to the Sun in its highly eccentric path through our solar system, on October 29. Earlier this week, it reached its solar conjunction, meaning it’s on the exact opposite side of the Sun relative to Earth.