Kepler Space Telescope Captures a Very Unique Image of Earth
Capturing images of our home planet from the perspective of faraway spacecraft has become a tradition at NASA, ever since Voyager, 28 years ago, displayed…
Kepler Space Telescope News
Astronomers Discover 95 New Exoplanets Using Kepler
“We started out analyzing 275 candidates of which 149 were validated as real exoplanets. In turn 95 of these planets have proved to be new…
Spitzer and Kepler Provide New Clues About TRAPPIST-1 Planet Compositions
In the year since NASA announced the seven Earth-sized planets of the TRAPPIST-1 system, scientists have been working hard to better understand these enticing worlds…
Kepler Continues to Surprise, Detects Transiting Exocomets
There are currently over 3500 confirmed exoplanets known thanks to the remarkable sensitivity of the Kepler spacecraft and to technological advances in space and ground-based…
Kepler Characterizes “Starspots” on 2244 Stars
Sunspots are regions on the Sun’s photosphere that appear darker than surrounding areas because they are cooler, usually by one or two thousand degrees Celsius….
Astronomers Discover Eighth Planet Circling Kepler-90
The discovery of an eighth planet circling the distant star Kepler-90 by University of Texas at Austin astronomer Andrew Vanderburg and Google’s Christopher Shallue overturns…
Hubble Observes Kepler-13Ab, A Planet Where Titanium Oxide Precipitates as Snow
Hubble has discovered a blistering hot planet outside our solar system where it “snows” titanium oxide on the planet’s permanent nighttime side. NASA’s Hubble Space…
Kepler Detects Transiting Comets Outside Our Solar System
Researchers, working closely with amateur astronomers, have spotted the dusty tails of six exocomets — comets outside our solar system — orbiting a faint star…
The Scientific Quest to Explain the Dimming of Tabby’s Star
Astronomers explain the reasons behind the behavior of Tabby’s Star. Some 1,500 light years from Earth, a mystery of stellar proportions is playing out. A…
New Research Reveals Dimming of Tabby’s Star May Be Caused by Dust
Using NASA’s Spitzer and Swift missions, as well as the Belgian AstroLAB IRIS observatory, astronomers reveal new details on one of the most mysterious stellar…
Astronomers Demonstrate a Powerful New Technique for Observing Stars
Using a new algorithm to enhance observations from the Kepler Space Telescope, astronomers provide the most detailed study yet of the Pleiades star cluster. The…
Closely Orbiting Stars May Make Planets Appear Smaller
New research reveals that two closely orbiting stars may appear in images as a single point of light, making planets appear less dense than previously…
Yale Astronomers Identify 60 New Hot Jupiter Candidates
A team of researchers from Yale University has identified 60 potential new “Hot Jupiters” — highly irradiated worlds that glow like coals on a barbecue…
NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope Identifies 219 New Planet Candidates
Astronomers have identified 219 new planet candidates, 10 of which are near-Earth size and orbiting in their star’s habitable zone. NASA’s Kepler space telescope team…
Astronomers Measure the Magnetic Field HAT-P-7b
New magnetohydrodynamic simulations of HAT-P-7 b reveal variable winds and a corresponding variability in the position of the hottest point in the atmosphere. Studying a…
Astronomers Identify a Regular Pattern in the Orbits TRAPPIST-1 Planets
Using NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope, a team of astronomers has identified a regular pattern in the orbits of the planets in the TRAPPIST-1 system. This…
Astronomers Discover a “Lost” Planet That is Nearly the Size of Neptune
Using Kepler data, Yale astronomers have discovered a Neptune-sized exoplanet – Kepler-150 f. Yale astronomers have discovered a “lost” planet that is nearly the size…
Kepler Provides Additional Data on TRAPPIST-1
NASA has released additional Kepler data about TRAPPIST-1 – an ultra-cool dwarf star that hosts a total of seven Earth-size planets. On February 22, astronomers…