WIRED Science: Space, Health, Biotech, and More

The Mystifying Case of the Missing Planets

WIRED Science: Space, Health, Biotech, and More

After the sun formed, the dust and gas left over from its natal cloud slowly swirled into the eight planets we have today. Small, rocky things clung close to the sun. Gigantic gas worlds floated in the system’s distant reaches. And around countless stars in the galaxy, a version of this process repeated itself, forging plentiful planets in a spectrum of sizes β€” except, apparently, worlds just a tad bigger than Earth.

Next Episodes