exoplanets
It’s Already Hard Enough to Block a Single Star’s Light to See its Planets. But Binary Stars? Yikes
Detecting exoplanets was frontier science not long ago. But now we've found over 5,000 of them, and we expect to…
Could Next-Generation Telescopes See That Earth Has Life?
While the Earth absorbs a lot of energy from the Sun, a lot of it is reflected back into space.…
By Blocking the Light From a Star, Webb Reveals the Dusty Disk Surrounding It
AU Microscopii is a small red dwarf star about 32 light-years away. It's far too dim for the unaided human…
Worlds Bustling With Plantlife Should Shine in a Detectable Wavelength of Infrared
Future historians might look back on this time and call it the 'exoplanet age.' We've found over 5,000 exoplanets, and…
NASA’s Exoplanet Watch Wants Your Help Studying Planets Around Other Stars
NASA has launched Exoplanet Watch, a citizen science project that allows the public to help discover and study extrasolar planets!
Planetary Interiors in TRAPPIST-1 System Could be Affected by Stellar Flares
In a recent study published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, an international team of researchers led by the University of…
Astronomers Scanned 12 Planets for Alien Signals While They Were in Front of Their Stars
New research by the SETI Institute and Breakthrough Listen scanned twelve planets for signs of radio signals when they passed…
Hubble and Spitzer Team up to Find a Pair of Waterworld Exoplanets
Using data from Hubble and Spitzer, an international team has discovered two new waterworlds in one system.
Do Exoplanet Scientists Have Favorite Exoplanets?
Exoplanets have become quite the sensation over the last decade-plus, with scientists confirming new exoplanets on a regular basis thanks…
What’s the Best Mix of Oceans to Land for a Habitable Planet?
Earth is about 29% land and 71% oceans. How significant is that mix for habitability? What does it tell us…