Context. As a star evolves, the planet orbits change with time due to tidal interactions, stellar mass losses, friction and gravitational drag forces, mass accretion and evaporation on/by the planet.

We still don’t fully understand what determines the rotation rate of giant planets; this is a key open topic in planetary science. Let’s take a look at the differences between the giant planets — ...

James is a published author with multiple pop-history and science books to his name. He specializes in history, space, strange science, and anything out of the ordinary.View full profile James is a ...

Tracking the rotation speed of solid planets, like the Earth and Mars, is a relatively simple task: Just measure the time it takes for a surface feature to roll into view again. But giant gas planets ...

Astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have measured the rotation rate of an extreme exoplanet by observing the varied brightness in its atmosphere. This is the first measurement of the ...

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 ...

The planets within our solar system are in constant motion in their orbits and as they spin on their axes. All planets in our solar system revolve around the Sun. But the time they take to complete ...

The Red Planet's spin is speeding up a hair fast enough to shorten the length of a Martian day by a fraction of a millisecond per year. "It’s really cool to be able to get this latest measurement — ...

The first ever exoplanets were discovered 30 years ago around a rapidly rotating star, called a pulsar. Now, astronomers have revealed that these planets may be incredibly rare. The first ever ...