"We used to think that only very simple molecules could be created in these clouds. But we have shown that this is clearly ...

Stars and planets are inextricably linked. They form together and stars shape the fate of planets. Stars create the dusty protoplanetary disks that give birth to planets of all kinds. And when a star ...

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

Pictures are the key to new insights in the field of astrophysics. Such images include simulations of cosmic events, which astrophysicists at UZH use to investigate how stars, planets and galaxies ...

A key method of forming planets finally has observational evidence, thanks to a network of radio telescopes in the U.K. that have resolved the existence of a huge abundance of centimeter-sized pebbles ...

Astronomers have found thousands of exoplanets around single stars, but few around binary stars—even though both types of ...

Korean researchers have uncovered the secret to how planets and comets could form far from a star — considered a mystery until now — by finding the key in a substance named crystalline silicates as ...

A decade of observations of four planets around the young planetary system V1298 Tau revealed a rare, long-sought missing ...

Thanks to the discovery of thousands of exoplanets to date, we know that planets bigger than Earth but smaller than Neptune orbit most stars. Oddly, our sun lacks such a planet. That's been a source ...

Hot Jupiters rank among the strangest planets astronomers have ever found. They are gas giants as massive as Jupiter, yet they race around their stars in just a few days. Since the first such world ...