The shape of a planet's orbit is one of its fundamental properties, along with its size and distance from its host star. Earth has a nearly circular orbit, but some planets outside our solar system, ...

Studying the orbits of thousands of exoplanets shows that large planets tend to have elliptical orbits, while smaller planets tend to have more circular orbits. This split coincides with several other ...

New research suggests Einstein's general relativity explains the rarity of planets orbiting two suns. In tight binary systems ...

General relativity helps explain the lack of planets around tight binary stars by driving orbital resonances that eject or destroy close-in worlds. This process naturally creates a “desert” of ...

A step-by-step explanation for why planets that orbit a double star eventually enter an unstable orbit and disappear from the system. Of the more than 4,500 stars known to have planets, one puzzling ...

Right angle Illustration of 2M1510 showing the orbits of the two brown dwarfs (in blue) and that of the planet (in orange). (Courtesy: ESO/L Calçada) The first strong evidence for an exoplanet with an ...