The planets around white dwarf stars might provide long-term homes for alien life, but they suffer from a fatal overheating problem. Who's going to rescue them? According to new research, it's none ...

Three billion years ago, a sun -like star reached the end of its life, throwing off its outer layers following its red giant ...

Why does humanity live on a planet orbiting a rare G-type dwarf star (like our Sun) when M-type red dwarfs comprise 82% of stars and are 33 times more abundant? Why do we live so early (1% into) the ...

What's special about Chiron's rings is that they're still forming; this marks the first time astronomers have ever seen a ...

For all the talk about life across the cosmos, Earth remains the only confirmed example. That single data point makes your place in the universe feel both ordinary and strange.

By combining the power of ground-based and space-based telescopes, astronomers have discovered a new brown dwarf—a type of ...

New observations suggest that the dwarf planet Makemake is surrounded by faintly glowing methane gas. Scientists are unsure if the gas is contained within a wispy atmosphere or being ejected into ...

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope detected material from a Pluto-like body spiraling into a white dwarf star 260 light-years away from Earth. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Tim Pyle illustration For the ...

By combining the power of ground-based and space-based telescopes, astronomers have discovered a new brown dwarf—a type of ...

If there's another planet in the system even somewhat nearby, its weak-but-persistent gravitational influence will pull the inner world into a highly elliptical orbit. Once there, it will stretch and ...