Oh, we humans do love a cleanly defined boundary, don’t we? They make things easier, after all. If we’re trying to categorize something, knowing what labeled bin to put it in is handy. If we’re ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. An award-winning reporter writing about stargazing and the night sky. The solar system suddenly has a new member. A new object ...

If you look up on a clear night, the brightest and largest object in the sky will probably be the moon. And unless you have a decent telescope, it is the only natural satellite you can see with your ...

While Earth spins in the same direction as the sun, that's not the case for every planet in the solar system. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s ...

And the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. Sometimes, if the night is dark and clear enough, you can look up and see the Milky Way in its arc across the sky.

When I was a kid, there were nine planets. Now we know of thousands! But that includes exoplanets, alien worlds that orbit alien suns. Only eight planets call our solar system home. Or there might ...

The solar system is 4.54 billion years old, based on rock dating. Gas giants (Jupiter and Saturn) likely formed first. Ice giants (Uranus and Neptune) probably formed next. Rocky planets formed last, ...