Exoplanets
These are the Best Places to Search for Habitable Exomoons
Our Solar System contains eight planets and more than 200 moons. The large majority of those moons have no chance…
The Younger the Planet, the More Likely it is to be Habitable
We've discovered thousands of exoplanets and are likely to find many thousands more of them. While the wide variety of…
Hubble has Characterized 25 Hot Jupiters. Here’s What we Know so far
Hot Jupiters are giant exoplanets – even more massive than Jupiter – but they orbit closer to their star than…
Venus' Atmosphere Stops it From Locking to the Sun
The reason Venus isn't tidally locked could be its thick atmosphere.
A Fleet of Space Telescopes Flying in Formation Could Reveal Details on Exoplanets
We've found thousands of exoplanets in the last couple of decades. We've discovered exoplanets unlike anything in our own Solar…
Just a Few Pixels Would let Astronomers Map Surface Features on an Exoplanet Like Oceans and Deserts
Direct images of exoplanets are rare and lack detail. Future observatories might change that, but for now, exoplanet images don't…
Digging Through Kepler Data Turns Up a Near Twin of Jupiter
NASA's Kepler planet-hunting spacecraft was deactivated in November 2018, about ten years after it launched. The mission detected over 5,000…
Hubble Has Been Watching This Planet Form for 13 Years
Hubble's most remarkable feature might be its longevity. The Hubble has been operating for almost 32 years and has fed…
It’s Not Conclusive, But Methane is Probably the Best Sign of Life on Exoplanets
When the James Webb Space Telescope aims at exoplanet atmospheres, it'll use spectroscopy to identify chemical elements. One of the…
It's Confirmed. We now Know of More Than 5,000 Exoplanets
There are now more than 5,000 known planets in the universe, and we're just getting started.