As planetary systems evolve, gravitational interactions between planets can fling some of them into eccentric elliptical orbits around the host star, or even out of the system altogether. Smaller ...

A 2024 study has delivered the strongest statistical evidence yet for the existence of Planet 9, a hypothesized world far beyond Neptune whose gravity could explain unusual orbits of distant solar ...

In theory, it could happen – one of the very first solutions to the three-body problem was this scenario. But it is very unlikely to be stable over time. You need the stars to have near equal mass and ...

Studying the orbits of thousands of exoplanets shows that large planets tend to have elliptical orbits, while smaller planets tend to have more circular orbits. This split coincides with several other ...

A new study has strengthened the statistical case for the existence of Planet 9, a hypothesised giant world far beyond Neptune. By analysing the orbits of distant solar system objects, researchers ...