"So far, planet formation has mostly been a topic tackled by computer simulations," astronomer Sascha Quanz of ETH Zurich in Switzerland, leader of the research team, said in a statement. "If our discovery is indeed a forming planet, then for the first time scientists will be able to study the planet formation process and the interaction of a forming planet and its natal environment empirically at a very early stage."

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The possible planet seems to fit the picture scientists are building of...
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The 33-pound rock, something of a family heirloom, was found in a cow pasture near Tazewell, Tenn., in the 1930s by Donna Lewis' grandfather, the late Tilmon Brooks.

The object of curiosity, which long served as a doorstop and a garden ornament and had even been painted green, turns out to be a very rare and very real meteorite, possibly 4.5 billion years old.

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The university has since purchased the meteorite, the remains of a meteor that fell to Earth, from the family. The former doorstop ...
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How far does it stretch? Where does it end… and what lies beyond its star fields… and streams of galaxies extending as far as telescopes can see?

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In ancient times, most observers saw the stars as a sphere surrounding the earth, often the home of deities.

The Greeks were the first to see celestial events as phenomena, subject to human investigation… rather than the fickle whims of the Gods.

One sky-watcher, for example, suggested that meteors are made of materials found on Earth… and...
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The planet, known as Kepler-47c, is a gas giant and therefore probably not suitable for life as we know it. But its existence hints that smaller, rockier worlds may inhabit other two-star systems' habitable zones —that just-right range of distances where liquid water can exist.

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The Kepler-47 system, whose discovery was announced Tuesday (Aug. 28), dwells about 5,000 light-years away, in the constellation Cygnus (The Swan). It is a close binary system, with two stars orbiting near each o...
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Lord Rees said he believed that astro-physicists could be able to view images of distant planets outside the solar system as soon as 2025. This could potentially lead to the discovery of some form of life on them.

When asked what changes could be expected in science in the next 40 years, he said understanding more about the "origin of life, the place where it exists, and whether aliens exist, is going to be crucial", the Daily Mail reported.

Scientists could find alien life within 40 years, s...
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The Kepler Space Telescope has notched another milestone discovery: double planets circling double stars in the constellation Cygnus, some 5,000 light-years away. It's the first time multiple planets have been found in a binary star system.

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The new system, named Kepler-47, has one sunlike star and a companion about a third its size. The two planets—one three times bigger than Earth and the other slightly larger than Uranus—orbit around both stars in what is likely a delicate dance.

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Titan has clouds, rain and lakes, like Earth, but these are composed of methane rather than water. However, methane lakes were seen only at Titan's poles until now — its tropics around the equator were apparently home to dune fields instead.

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The question of how a subterranean aquifer might form on Titan is still unclear. "Titan's orbit about Saturn might give us a clue. It is not circular," Griffith said. Some scientists suggest that Titan's noncircular orbit was once even more ellip...
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