Planetary Formation

What Would Happen if the Solar System Gained a Super-Earth?

In this era of exoplanet discovery, astronomers have found over 5,000 confirmed exoplanets, with thousands more awaiting confirmation and many…

1 month ago

Most Exoplanets Suffer Worse Space Weather Than We Do

We have it relatively easy on the Earth. Our Sun is relatively calm. The space weather environment in the solar…

4 months ago

Trading Spaces: How Swapping Stars Create Hot Jupiters

Star clusters tend to host more hot Jupiters than average, but why? A team of astronomers have proposed a new…

4 months ago

Baby Gas Giants Cast Shadows on Their Siblings

A team of astronomers has caught glimpses of gas giants forming around a very young star. The nascent giants are…

4 months ago

It’s Tough to Find Evidence of Stars Eating Planets

Tragically sometimes stars engulf their own planets. While most stars are able to quickly cover up the evidence for their…

5 months ago

A new way to Discover Planets? Astronomers Detect an Exoplanet by Seeing its Trojan Belts

Astronomers demonstrate that you don't have to see a planet to discover it. You only need to see its Lagrange…

6 months ago

Hot Stars Blast Away at gas Giants Until Only Their Rocky Cores Remain

We don't see many Neptune-sized worlds closely orbiting their star. That may be because the star robs them of their…

7 months ago

How Do Hot Jupiters Get So Close to Their Stars?

In this age of exoplanet discovery, we've discovered thousands of exoplanets of different types. The hot Jupiter is one of…

9 months ago

Digging Through Kepler Data Turns Up a Near Twin of Jupiter

NASA's Kepler planet-hunting spacecraft was deactivated in November 2018, about ten years after it launched. The mission detected over 5,000…

12 months ago

Hubble Has Been Watching This Planet Form for 13 Years

Hubble's most remarkable feature might be its longevity. The Hubble has been operating for almost 32 years and has fed…

12 months ago