Planet hunters have grown used to strange worlds, but a handful of discoveries now point to something even more radical: giant planets that loop around their stars on orbits so skewed they almost defy ...

Scientists are unraveling the mysteries of "steam worlds"—exoplanets known as sub-Neptunes that are rich in water but orbit so close to their stars that their surfaces are shrouded in thick ...

Despite its unmemorable name, J2322-2650 is a strange system. A Jupiter-sized exoplanet orbits an energetic neutron star, which constantly bombards it with gamma rays. Now, a team of astronomers has ...

Astronomers are investigating a strange class of exoplanets known as eccentric warm Jupiters — massive gas giants that orbit their stars in unexpected, elongated paths. Unlike their close-orbiting ...

Dark matter is one of the biggest puzzles in science. Although it makes up about 85 percent of all matter in the universe, it has never been directly observed. You can’t see it, touch it, or hold it ...

Science fiction writer and futurist Arthur C. Clarke once said, “Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.” And perhaps that fear is what ...

Since the discovery of exoplanets, a planet that orbits stars outside the solar system, astronomers and scientists have been astounded by the strange characteristics of these extrasolar planets. To ...