How Habitable Are Planets That Orbit Red Dwarfs – The Most Common Type of Stars in the Galaxy?
How hospitable are red dwarf stars, the most common and long-lasting stars in our Galaxy? Researchers used Chandra and Hubble data to look at the…
Exoplanet
Witness the Formation of a Planet: Hubble Watches How a Giant Exoplanet Grows
Exoplanet PDS 70b is gobbling up gas and dust as it continues to build mass. Ever made a complete mess in your kitchen while baking?…
Hydroxyl Molecule Signature Detected in an Exoplanet Atmosphere for the First Time
An international collaboration of astronomers led by a researcher from the Astrobiology Center and Queen’s University Belfast, and including researchers from Trinity, has detected a…
Scientists Have Discovered a Unique and Powerful Dark Matter Detector
Using exoplanets as dark matter detectors: Temperature of planets reveals new details, scientists say. In the continuing search for dark matter in our universe, scientists…
Astronomers Puzzled by Giant Planet at Large Distance From Sun-Like Star
A team of astronomers led by Dutch scientists has directly imaged a giant planet orbiting at a large distance around a sun-like star. Why this…
Astronomers Detect a New Super-Earth Orbiting a Red Dwarf Star
In recent years there has been an exhaustive study of red dwarf stars to find exoplanets in orbit around them. These stars have effective surface…
NASA’s Io Volcano Observer: Following the Heat and Hunting Clues to Planet Evolution
A proposed mission called Io Volcano Observer (IVO) would visit Jupiter’s moon Io, which is a true volcanic wonderland with hundreds of erupting volcanoes gushing…
Nearest Exoplanet to Our Solar System: Jupiter-Mass Planet Orbiting Epsilon Eridani
This artist’s concept is of a Jupiter-mass planet orbiting the nearby star Epsilon Eridani. Located 10.5 light-years away, it was the closest known exoplanet to…
“Chemical Fingerprint” of First Transiting Exoplanet Reveals Its Distant Birthplace
Astronomers have found evidence that the first exoplanet that was identified transiting its star could have migrated to a close orbit with its star from…
Size of Raindrops Help Identify Potentially Habitable Planets Outside Our Solar System
Raindrops Also Keep Fallin’ on Exoplanets One day, humankind may step foot on another habitable planet. That planet may look very different from Earth, but…
Hubble Space Telescope Sees Volcanic Activity Reforming the Atmosphere on a Rocky Exoplanet
For the first time, scientists using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have found evidence of volcanic activity reforming the atmosphere on a rocky planet around…
Earth Has a Hot New Neighbor: Discovery of a Nearby Exoplanet Suitable for Atmospheric Investigation
Using both transit and radial velocity data, researchers discovered Gliese 486 b — a super-Earth exoplanet orbiting the nearby red dwarf star Gliese 486. At…
NASA’s Roman Space Telescope Predicted to Find 100,000 Transiting Planets
NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will create enormous cosmic panoramas, helping us answer questions about the evolution of our universe. Astronomers also expect the…
NASA’s Pandora Mission Would Help Probe Alien Worlds
In the quest for habitable planets beyond our own, NASA is studying a mission concept called Pandora, which could eventually help decode the atmospheric mysteries…
Gigantic, Scorching-Hot Planet May Be Orbiting Vega, One of the Brightest Stars in the Night Sky
Astronomers have discovered new hints of a giant, scorching-hot planet orbiting Vega, one of the brightest stars in the night sky. The research, published this…
Planetary Scientists Discover There May Be Many Planets With Water-Rich Atmospheres
University of Chicago study finds way that hot, rocky planets in other systems could form and keep atmospheres. An atmosphere is what makes life on…
On the Quest for Other Earths in the Search for Extraterrestrial Life
An international research team with members from ETH has developed a new method for directly imaging smaller planets in the habitable zone of a neighboring…
Search for Alien Life: How the Habitability of Exoplanets Is Influenced by Their Rocks
The weathering of silicate rocks plays an important role to keep the climate on Earth clement. Scientists led by the University of Bern and the…