Exoplanets
Dust Might Reveal the Presence of Habitable Planets
NASA's next great space telescope should launch no later than 2027. The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is a powerful…
Smaller, Ground-Based Telescopes can Study Exoplanet Atmospheres too
The next step to understanding exoplanets is to understand their atmospheres better. Astronomers can determine a planet's mass, density, and…
What’s it Like Inside a Super-Earth?
We know a ton about the inside of Earth. We know it has both an inner core and an outer…
Mini-Neptunes can Lose gas and Turn Into Super-Earths
Can one type of planet become another? Can a mini-Neptune lose its atmosphere and become a super-Earth? Astronomers have found…
Planet Found in the Habitable Zone of a White Dwarf
Most stars will end their lives as white dwarfs. White dwarfs are the remnant cores of once-luminous stars like our…
5,000 Exoplanets!
Before NASA's TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) mission launched in 2018, astronomers tried to understand what it would find in…
ESA’s ARIEL Mission Will Study the Atmospheres of More Than 1,000 Exoplanets
We found our first exoplanets orbiting a pulsar in 1992. Since then, we've discovered many thousands more. Those were the…
Extreme Tidal Forces Have Deformed an Exoplanet
What an exoplanet shaped like a rugby ball tells us about its composition.
These Newly-Discovered Planets are Doomed
Astronomers have spied three more exoplanets. But the discovery might not last long. Each planet is in a separate solar…
Forget That Planet That Orbits Every 16 Hours. That’s so Last Week. Now Astronomers Have Found a Metal Planet That Orbits its Star EVERY 8 HOURS
Astronomers have found a small, hot planet that might be almost solid iron.