Exoplanets
Gaia is Now Finding Planets. Could it Find Another Earth?
The ESA launched Gaia in 2013 with one overarching goal: to map more than one billion stars in the Milky…
This Exoplanet is Probably a Solid Ball of Metal
We can't understand nature without understanding its range. That's apparent in exoplanet science and in our theories of planetary formation.…
An Ambitious New Technology Might be Needed to See Other Earths
NASA and its partners are starting to develop plans for the Habitable Worlds Observatory flagship mission that's due to launch…
If Astronomers See These Chemicals in a Planet’s Atmosphere, There’s Likely an Advanced Civilization There
In an age of ever-growing numbers of exoplanets circling other stars, it's natural that astronomers search for signatures of advanced…
Planning is Underway for NASA’s Next Big Flagship Space Telescope
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has only been operational for just over a year, but this isn’t stopping the…
Do The Gaps in Protoplanetary Disks Really Indicate Newly Forming Planets?
Modern instruments like ALMA have revealed newly forming stars surrounded by accretion disks. These images are so sensitive you can…
JWST Might Have Imaged a Hycean World for the First Time, With a Hydrogen-Rich Atmosphere and a Deep Planet-Wide Water Ocean
Astronomers have directed JWST to examine the atmosphere of an exoplanet called K2-18 b, which orbits a cool dwarf star…
TESS Finds a Planet That Takes 482 Days to Orbit, the Widest it’s Seen so Far
We're rapidly learning that our Solar System, so familiar to us all, does not represent normal. A couple of decades…
Astronomers Confirm First Exoplanet “Thermometer Molecule” that is Typically Used to Study Brown Dwarfs
A recent study published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters examines a rare alloy molecule known as chromium hydride (CrH) and…
A Neptune-sized Exoplanet is Denser Than Steel. The Result of a Catastrophic Collision?
There's an odd exoplanet out there posing a challenge to planetary scientists. It's a hot Neptune denser than steel. The…