Exoplanets
- Astronomy
Earth has nothing on this exoplanet’s lightning storms
Lightning storms far more intense than any on Earth might explain radio waves that once came from a planet 124 light-years away.
- Astronomy
Kepler telescope doubles its count of known exoplanets
NASA’s Kepler space telescope adds 1,284 planets to the roster of worlds known to orbit other stars in our galaxy.
- Astronomy
Nearby exoplanet trio new target in search for life
Three nearby exoplanets might be good spots to go looking for signs of alien life.
- Space
Trying to find ET and our place in the universe
Editor in Chief discusses the search for life beyond Earth.
- Astronomy
New telescopes will search for signs of life on distant planets
Researchers are coming up with creative ways to pick up biosignatures in far-away planetary atmospheres.
- Astronomy
Planets may emerge from stellar duo gathering icy dust
Gas freezing onto dust grains around a binary star could be setting up a site where comets or even planets might someday form.
- Astronomy
Largest rocky world found
A planet roughly half the size of Neptune might be 100 percent rock, making it the largest known rocky world.
- Astronomy
The votes are in: Exoplanets get new names
Arion, Galileo and Poltergeist are just three winners of a contest to name planets and suns in 20 solar systems.
- Astronomy
To search for an advanced civilization, take a U-turn to star clusters
Globular star clusters might be safe, stable homes for long-lived advanced civilizations.
- Astronomy
Exoplanets need right stuff to be habitable
The elemental makeup of a star can reveal whether planets in its solar system could support sustained plate tectonics, a requirement for Earth-like life, researchers propose.
- Astronomy
Super-Earths, meet superpuffs, a lighter weight class of planet
Superpuffs are underweight, oversized planets that formed in outskirts of star systems before cuddling up close to their sun.
- Astronomy
White dwarf upsets planetary system, consumes evidence
Rocky planets are disintegrating around a white dwarf, the core of a dead star.
