For 1st Time NASA Finds Water Vapor on a Super-Earth [Video]
Its size and surface gravity are much larger than Earth’s, and its radiation environment may be hostile, but a distant planet called K2-18b has captured…
Exoplanet
Hidden Secrets of Elusive Exoplanet Revealed by Innovative New Instrument
In an unprecedented feat, an American research team discovered hidden secrets of an elusive exoplanet using a powerful new instrument at the 8-meter Gemini North…
Newly Discovered Massive Exoplanet’s Bizarre Orbit [Video]
Three times the mass of Jupiter, a first-of-its-kind planet swings around its star on a bizarre path. Astronomers have discovered a planet three times the…
In Search of Habitable Worlds Beyond Our Solar System, Astronomers Determine Earth’s Fingerprint
Two McGill University astronomers have assembled a “fingerprint” for Earth, which could be used to identify a planet beyond our Solar System capable of supporting…
NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope Gets a Rare Look at the Surface of a Rocky Exoplanet
A new study using data from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope provides a rare glimpse of conditions on the surface of a rocky planet orbiting a…
Rocky, Earth-Sized Exoplanet Is Missing an Atmosphere [Video]
Study reports on search for an atmosphere around a planet somewhat similar to ours. Astronomers at MIT, Harvard University, and elsewhere have searched a rocky,…
Astronomers Discover 18 Earth-Sized Planets Beyond Our Solar System
Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS), the Georg August University of Göttingen, and the Sonneberg Observatory have discovered 18 Earth-sized…
Astrophysicists Publish a ‘Survival Guide’ for Exoplanets
Small, hardy planets packed with dense elements have the best chance of avoiding being crushed and swallowed up when their host star dies, new research…
Astronomers Discover a Giant Object in the Cygnus Constellation
In the past three decades, almost 4,000 planet-like objects have been discovered orbiting isolated stars outside the Solar System (exoplanets). Beginning in 2011, it was…
Scientists Simulate Alien Atmospheres on Earth
Researchers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, are cooking up an alien atmosphere right here on Earth. In a new study, JPL scientists…
K Stars May Be Perfect for Finding Habitable Worlds
Scientists looking for signs of life beyond our solar system face major challenges, one of which is that there are hundreds of billions of stars…
TRAPPIST-1 Exposed to Heavy Bombardment of Charged Particles
TRAPPIST-1 is a system of seven Earth-sized worlds orbiting an ultra-cool dwarf star about 120 light-years away. The star, and hence its system of planets,…
Explore Alien Exoplanets with New Multimedia Treats
Explore the plethora of planets outside our solar system with new multimedia experiences from NASA’s Exoplanet Exploration Program (ExEP). In addition to a new Exoplanet Travel Bureau…
Gaia Mission Helps Improve Classification Scheme for Exoplanet Sizes
There are about 4433 exoplanets in the latest catalogs. Their radii have generally been measured by knowing the radius of their host star and then…
Astronomers Discover Wolf 503b, An Exoplanet Twice The Size Of Earth
Wolf 503b, an exoplanet twice the size of Earth, has been discovered by an international team using data from NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope. The find…
Astronomers Believe Water Worlds Could Support Life
The conditions for life surviving on planets entirely covered in water are more fluid than previously thought, opening up the possibility that water worlds could…
Gaia and Hipparcos Satellites Reveal the Mass of an Infant Exoplanet
The mass of a very young exoplanet has been revealed for the first time using data from ESA’s star mapping spacecraft Gaia and its predecessor,…
Scientists Reveal That Water-Worlds Are More Common Than Previously Thought
Scientists have shown that water is likely to be a major component of those exoplanets (planets orbiting other stars) which are between two to four…