Exoplanets
‘Diamond’ Super-Earth’s Makeup Called Into Question In New Study
A precious planet? Don't think so fast, a new study says. The so-called "diamond super-Earth", 55 Cancri e, may actually…
Mercury’s Resonant Rotation ‘Should Be Common’ In Alien Planets
Three to two. That's the ratio of the time it takes Mercury to go around the sun (88 days) in…
First Cloudy Alien Planet Spotted From Earth
Call it cloudy with a low chance of meatballs. The alien world Kepler-7b -- a very reflective world in big…
Magnetic Fields are Crucial to Exomoon Habitability
Astronomers believe that hidden deep within the wealth of data collected by NASA’s Kepler mission are minuscule signatures confirming the…
How Spitzer’s Focus Changed To Strange New Worlds
After 10 years in space -- looking at so many galaxies and stars and other astronomy features -- the Spitzer…
Planet Evaporates Due to Stellar Flare
Solar flares – huge eruptions of charged particles from the Sun – present little threat to Earth. On a few…
How Do You Find The Signs of Life On Alien Planets?
One big challenge in astronomy is everything is so darn far away. This makes it hard to see the signs…
New Exoplanet Research: Magnetic Fields Significantly Affect Hot Jupiter Atmospheres
Determining weather patterns in exoplanet atmospheres – hundreds to thousands of light years away – is extremely difficult. However, given…
Rogue Planets Could Form On Their Own in Interstellar Space
Free-floating rogue planets are intriguing objects. These planet-sized bodies adrift in interstellar space were predicted to exist in 1998, and…
Hobbled Kepler Space Telescope Now On The Hunt For A New Mission
It's unclear how the Kepler space telescope's science operations will continue, if at all, as NASA weighs what to do…