Exoplanets
- Astronomy
Infant worlds carve gaps in planet-forming disk
A new image shows planets sweeping up gas and dust in a disk encircling the infant star HL Tau.
- Astronomy
Water found on Neptune-sized world
Just four times as wide as Earth, HAT-P-11b is the smallest exoplanet known to store water in its atmosphere.
- Astronomy
When looking for aliens, try finding their pollution
Future telescopes may discover civilized aliens by detecting the industrial pollutants called fluorinated gases in exoplanet atmospheres.
- Astronomy
Tilted binary stars test theories of planet formation
Tilted disks in binary star systems may help astronomers explain variety of exoplanet orbits.
- Physics
Diamonds under pressure impersonate exoplanet cores
Scientists use lasers at the National Ignition Facility to squeeze diamonds to the extreme pressures found inside massive exoplanets.
- Astronomy
Rare planet circles just one of a pair of stars
A newly discovered exoplanet orbits one star in a binary pair and shows that planets can form even with a second sun nearby.
- Astronomy
Exoplanets once trumpeted as life-friendly may not exist
Two exoplanets considered among the most promising for hosting life may not exist, a new study suggests.
- Astronomy
Stopping starlight may bring other Earths into focus
Two new telescope concepts compete for NASA’s approval, in hopes of taking the first picture of a life-bearing exoplanet.
- Astronomy
Rocky, overweight planet shakes up theories
Kepler-10c is a rocky exoplanet 17 times as massive as Earth, and astronomers are puzzled as to how it formed.
- Astronomy
Young, hot exoplanet takes title for longest year
Newly discovered exoplanet sits a whopping 2,000 times farther from its star than Earth does from the sun.
- Astronomy
Sun shines new life on Kepler space telescope
NASA approved a proposal to bring the crippled Kepler spacecraft back to life, using sunlight as balance to help the telescope search for planets and more.
- Astronomy
Exoplanet spin measured for first time
Astronomers measure the spin of a planet outside our solar system, and its days are short: just over eight hours.
