A new study suggests that a close encounter with a massive interstellar object, possibly eight times the mass of Jupiter, may have significantly altered the orbits of the four outer planets in our ...

A massive interstellar object passing through our solar system during its formative years likely altered the orbits of planets into trajectories observed today, a new study says. Interactions with ...

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or ...

3I/ATLAS is called a comet. Except that, upon closer look, it doesn't look like a comet. Dubbed as an "unusually fast" ...

Since the formation of the Solar System, the orbits of the planets have evolved and changed over time. While one of the most prominent ideas in the last few decades is planetary migrations and the ...

Theorbits of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune may have been altered by the fly-by of an enormous object from deep space, billions of years ago. According to a pre-print research paper, which is yet ...

Jupiter is already the biggest planet by far in our solar system, but new research suggests it was somehow once even larger than it is now. Twice as large, in fact. To put that into context, those ...