Extrasolar Planets
Newly Discovered Planet Orbits in Just 31 Hours
Of the extrasolar planets astronomers have discovered, it's the hot jupiters that really boggle the imagination. These worlds can be…
New Mission Could Find Star Trek’s Planet Vulcan
All right, this article from NASA is totally pandering to my Star Trek geekiness. I know I'm being manipulated, but…
Astronomers Map the Hot Weather on a Distant Planet
How's the weather? Hot enough for you? Well, if you're living on extrasolar planet HD 189733b, you'd really want to…
Creating the Conditions Inside Supergiant Planets
We won't be visiting a supergiant planet any time soon. But physicists are about to do the next best thing,…
Super-Massive Planet Discovered
It's been a week of planetary discoveries. Here's another. This latest find announced by the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA)…
COROT Turns Up its First Planet
The European Space Agency's COROT planet hunting observatory turned up its first planet - a hot Jupiter - surprising its…
Podcast: Discovering Another Earth
What a week! Astronomers announced the discovery of an Earth-sized planet orbiting the nearby star Gliese 581. We talk about…
Cooler Stars Need to Keep Out of the Danger Zone
If you're a newly forming star system, there's no better place to be than a stellar nursery. All those raw…
Earth-Sized Planet Discovered in the Habitable Zone
Great big Jupiter-like planets are one thing, but the Holy Grail of extrasolar planetary discover is going to be another…
Aliens on This World Would See a Double Sunset
Imagine a world orbiting a star in a binary system. Two stars would shine in the day, and the rare…