Exoplanets
A Machine-Learning Algorithm Just Found 301 Additional Planets in Kepler Data
Using a new type of deep-learning algorithm, a team of NASA scientists have detected 301 more exoplanets in the Kepler…
Astronomers Find a Planet That Orbits its Star in Just 16 HOURS!
Mercury is the speed champion in our Solar System. It orbits the Sun every 88 days, and its average speed…
Eggshell Planets Have a Thin Brittle Crust and No Mountains or Tectonics
Planets without plate tectonics are unlikely to be habitable. But currently, we've never seen the surface of an exoplanet to…
Astronomers see a Moon-Forming Disk Around a Super-Jupiter
Recently, astronomers have been finding protoplanetary discs around certain stars. Their discovery has helped kick off a new work in…
Rare Planet Found Orbiting Three Stars
It's a hat-trick! Astronomers may have spotted the first ever known planet orbiting not one, not two, but three stars.…
An Exoplanet Reaches 2400 C in One Hemisphere. Does it Really Rain Iron?
WASP-76b is an ultra-hot Jupiter about 640 light-years away from Earth in the constellation Pisces. A few years ago it…
Future Telescopes Could be Seeing the Wrong Planets
When we directly observe distant worlds, some exoplanets might appear Earth-like, even when they are not.
A New Way to Search for Exomoons
We'd love to find another planet like Earth. Not exactly like Earth; that's kind of ridiculous and probably a little…
Ground-Based Observatories Could use Starshades to see Planets too
All hail the occulter: an orbiting starshade for ground-based telescopes. (more…)
Rocky Planet Found With Only Half the Mass of Venus
When it comes to finding exoplanets, size matters, but so does weight. The larger and heavier the planet, the more…