Close encounter may have shaped solar system
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The outer reaches of our solar system may have been shaped long ago by a close encounter with another star that tore up both nascent planetary systems like colliding buzz saws, astronomers said on Tuesday.
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Earth-like planets orbiting other stars may be far more common than had once been thought, a study suggests.
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Two old stars appear to be gearing up for a second generation of planet formation, a phenomenon astronomers say they have never seen before.
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Ancient carbon-rich globules could offer a glimpse into the solar system's planet-building past and may provide clues to how life on Earth first arose.
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The sun may have captured millions of asteroids from another planetary system during an encounter more than 4 billion years ago, astronomers report today.
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New observations of dust around young stars suggests collisions of large asteroid-like objects and fledgling planets are frequent.
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The collisions that spawn planets are bigger and take place over longer periods of time than previously thought, say astronomers who studied nearly 300 stars with NASA&#39;s Spitzer Space Telescope.
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A tiny telescope has spotted a giant planet circling a faraway star, using a technique that could open a new phase of planetary discovery, scientists said on Tuesday.
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Hollow spheres found in a primordial meteorite could yield clues to the origin of life on Earth.
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When a binary star system starts to transfer mass, one of the twins may well win out, leaving its companion to occupy a strange region half way between a star and a planet. A new star-type of this sort has been found, which resembles the infrared ash of a stillborn star.
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The universe looked a little more familiar and friendlier. The roll call of planets beyond the solar system swelled significantly with the announcement of a trio of newly-discovered worlds much smaller than any previously discovered around other stars.
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Interesting data has been sent by the Cassini spacecraft from Saturn back to astronomers on Earth. The results provide insight into the planet&#39;s rings and how the planet has evolved lately.
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Astronomers have found the first signature of complex organic molecules in the dust cloud around a distant star, suggesting that these building blocks of life may be a common feature of planetary systems.
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New observations of dust around young stars suggest collisions of large asteroid-like objects and fledgling planets are frequent. But that doesn&#39;t likely stop the formation
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The largest asteroid ever known to pass near Earth is making a close celestial brush with the planet this week in an event that professional and backyard astronomers are watching closely.
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Imagine our sun snatching an alien planet from another solar system, four billion years ago. A team of scientists, including a Utah physicist, say it&#39;s a possibility based on a wild new simulation.
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The Cassini spacecraft cruised on Tuesday to within 745 miles of Titan, Saturn&#39;s planet-size moon, for the first close encounter with it.