Planets, Sun | featured news

Astronomers trawling through a mess of stellar data discover that Tau Ceti, our nearest single Sun-like star, hosts five planets - one in its "habitable zone".

Contact! For the last time in 105 years, Earthlings are watching the planet Venus creep across the surface of the sun during a scientifically significant transit that lasts almost seven hours.

It's your last chance to catch one of the rarest cosmic spectacles - Venus slowly crossing the face of the sun. Weather permitting, the transit of Venus will be visible from much of Earth - Tuesday from the Western Hemisphere and Wednesday from the Eastern Hemisphere. This sight won't come again until 105 years from now - in 2117....

It's a spectacle that won't repeat for another century - the sight of Venus slowly inching across the face of the sun....

A star already known to host five alien planets may actually be home to a whopping nine full-fledged worlds - a planetary arrangement that, if confirmed, would outnumber our own solar system and set a new record for the most populated system of extrasolar planets yet found.

Astronomers announced this week they found a water-rich and relatively nearby planet that's similar in size to Earth.

A distant "sun" residing in the constellation Aquila has become the smallest star known to host a planet.