How to Distinguish Habitable Worlds Apart from Lifeless Gas Giants
A new study demonstrates how to distinguish between cloudy mini-Neptunes and volatile-dominated super-Earths based on the differences in the wing steepness and relative depths of…
Exoplanet
How NASA Engineers Revamped Spitzer to Probe Exoplanets
This short narrative looks back on how NASA engineers revamped the Spitzer Space Telescope to probe exoplanets. Now approaching its 10th anniversary, NASA’s Spitzer Space…
Scientists Estimate Earth’s Remaining Habitable Lifetime, Examine Habitability of Exoplanets
By using habitable zone and stellar evolution models, astrobiologists from the University of East Anglia have estimated that habitable conditions on Earth will be possible…
New Research Explores the Possibility of Detecting Biomarkers on Distant Planets
New research presented to the European Planetary Science Congress at UCL aims to explore how atmospheric biomarkers from faraway planets might be detected in the…
New Flicker Technique Measures Surface Gravity of Distant Stars
Astronomers at Vanderbilt have developed a new flicker technique to measure the surface gravity of distant stars. The technique can also be used to significantly…
Scientists Discover an Earth-Sized Exoplanet That Orbits Its Star Every 8.5 Hours
Scientists from MIT have discovered an Earth-sized exoplanet, named Kepler 78b, that orbits its star every 8.5 hours and has estimated surface temperatures as high…
NASA Ends Attempts to Fully Restore Kepler, Considers New Missions
NASA has announced that all attempts to fully restore Kepler have failed and that they are now looking at potential new missions for the space…
Latest ScienceCast Video Explores the Strange Attraction of Hot Jupiters
The latest ScienceCast video explores the attraction astronomers have to class of exoplanets called “hot Jupiters.” ScienceCasts: The Strange Attraction of Hot Jupiters An exotic…
SEEDS Project Discovers “Second Jupiter” – Lowest-Mass Exoplanet Around a Sun-Like Star
Astronomers in the SEEDS Project have discovered the least massive planet ever detected around a star like the sun. A so-called “second Jupiter,” planet GJ…
Scientists Determine the Interior Rotation of a Sun-Like Star
Using asteroseismic data obtained by the CoRoT space telescope, a team of scientists was able to measure the internal rotation of a Sun-like star and…
Chandra Views an Eclipsing Exoplanet for First Time
Data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and the European Space Agency’s XMM Newton Observatory has revealed the first exoplanet caught passing in front of its…
New Theoretical Models Could Aid in the Hunt for Habitable Planets
A recently published study details new theoretical models that reveal how an outburst event in the Sun’s early years could help in the hunt for…
How Astronomers Search for Habitable Exoplanets
As the search for habitable planets continues, astronomers detail how they determine which exoplanets have all the right conditions for life to thrive. There is…
Harvard Scientists Develop Interactive Website to Model Exoplanet Interiors
Scientists from the Department of Astronomy at Harvard University have developed a new interactive website that models the interiors of exoplanets. An interactive tool to…
Hubble Reveals Actual Visible-Light Color of Exoplanet HD 189733b
Using data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have revealed that the actual visible-light color of exoplanet HD 189733b is deep blue. Astronomers making visible-light…
Astronomers Determine the Size and Mass of Super-Earth HD 97658b
Using the Microvariability & Oscillations of Stars (MOST) space telescope, astronomers were able to estimate the true size and mass of super-Earth HD 97658b for…
Cloud Modeling Doubles Estimate of Habitable Planets Orbiting Red Dwarfs in the Milky Way
Researchers from the University of Chicago and Northwestern University have published a new study that used computer simulations of cloud behavior to help suggest that…
Planet-Finding Campaign Reveals That Gas-Giant Exoplanets Orbit Close to Their Parent Stars
Using data from Gemini Observatory’s Planet-Finding Campaign, several new studies reveal the nature of gas-giant exoplanets, finding that they tend to dwell near their parent…
