There are eight planets in the solar system, and each travels on its own path around the sun. But of these planets, which is nearest to the sun? Mercury is a strange little world. There are some ...

Each year, Earth reaches its closest point to the sun in early January, a moment called perihelion. In 2026, this occurred on ...

Every year in early January, Earth reaches the closest point in its orbit to the Sun, a moment astronomers call perihelion.

The cosmos has put on a show for us this spring, from the total solar eclipse in April that impacted the entire continental U.S. to the geomagnetic storm that led to northern lights in May. Next up, a ...

The discovery of an Earth-like planet 4,000 light years away in the Milky Way galaxy provides a preview of one possible fate for our planet billions of years in the future, when the sun has turned ...

A planet's year length depends on its distance from the Sun. Planets closer to the Sun have shorter years. A planet's rotation speed is unrelated to its year length. Planets' orbital speeds vary ...

Within a few dozen light years of the Sun, the sky is crowded with stars that could, in principle, host living worlds. I want ...