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Planetary Systems
Planetary Systems includes topics such as Extrasolar and Solar planets and Planetology. A planetary system consists of the various non-stellar objects orbiting a star such as planets, moons, asteroids, meteoroids, comets, and cosmic dust. The Sun and its planetary system, which includes Earth, is known as the Solar System. Planetary systems are generally believed to form as part of the same process which results in star formation. Accepted theories today argue that a protoplanetary disk forms by gravitational collapse of a molecular cloud and then evolves into a planetary system by collisions and gravitational capture.
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Featured News
In All the Universe, Just 10 Percent of Solar...
WASHINGTON, DC (Jan. 5, 2010) – In their quest to find solar systems analogous to ours, astronomers have determined how common our solar system is. They’ve concluded... More »
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Featured News
NASA's Kepler Space Telescope Discovers Five...
PASADENA, CA (Jan. 4, 2010) – NASA's Kepler space telescope, designed to find Earth-size planets in the habitable zone of sun-like stars, has discovered its first five new... More »
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Featured News
Let the Planet Hunt Begin
NASA-JPL (May 13, 2009) – NASA's Kepler spacecraft has begun its search for other Earth-like worlds. The mission, which launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on March 6, will... More »
A Little Telescope Goes a Long Way
Last Updated on 2010-02-09 at 17:35
PASADENA, CA (Feb. 9, 2010) – NASA astronomers have successfully demonstrated that a David of a telescope can tackle Goliath-size questions in the quest to study Earth-like... More »
In All the Universe, Just 10 Percent of Solar Systems...
Last Updated on 2010-01-05 at 17:21
WASHINGTON, DC (Jan. 5, 2010) – In their quest to find solar systems analogous to ours, astronomers have determined how common our solar system is.
They’ve concluded... More »
NASA's Kepler Space Telescope Discovers Five Exoplanets
Last Updated on 2010-01-05 at 17:12
PASADENA, CA (Jan. 4, 2010) – NASA's Kepler space telescope, designed to find Earth-size planets in the habitable zone of sun-like stars, has discovered its first five new... More »
Avatar's Moon Pandora Could Be Real
Last Updated on 2009-12-18 at 12:33
CAMBRIDGE, MA (Dec. 18, 2009) – In the new blockbuster Avatar, humans visit the habitable - and inhabited - alien moon called Pandora. Life-bearing moons like Pandora or the... More »
First Direct Observation of a Planet-like Object...
Last Updated on 2009-12-03 at 16:48
PRINCETON, NJ (Dec. 3, 2009) – An international team of scientists that includes an astronomer from Princeton University has made the first direct observation of a... More »
Exoplanet: Atmosphere
Last Updated on 2009-11-09 at 18:05
An "exoplanet" is an extra-solar planet, that is, a planet orbiting a star other than our own sun. Of the roughly 307 currently known extrasolar planets, about thirty of... More »
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