The way people think of the Solar System has changed many times throughout history. Before the development of the telescope, these ideas were based on what could be seen with the naked eye.

The Sun is the largest object in the Solar System. The Sun’s huge gravitational field keeps many other objects – planets, dwarf planets, asteroids and comets – in orbit around it.

These are types of planets that are absent from our own solar system, but paradoxically constitute the most common classes of planet in the Milky Way. This discovery sheds light on a planetary ...