exoplanets
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…
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…
Exoplanet Found With a Highly Eccentric Orbit
Observations made by an international team of researchers has found a mini-Neptune with the most eccentric orbit of any planet…
Would Mars be More Habitable if it Orbited a Red Dwarf?
A NASA-supported study by an international multi-disciplinary team has shown what Mars would be like if it orbited a red…
Life on Earth Needed Iron. Will it be the Same on Other Worlds?
A lot has to go right for a planet to support life. Some of the circumstances that allow life to…
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…
A Space Telescope With one job: Find Habitable Planets at Alpha Centauri
Breakthrough Initiatives just announced a collaborative effort to launch a space telescope that will search for habitable planets around Alpha…
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…
Moons are Planets too
If we define planets as worlds that are geologically complex, then some moons are planets too.