Exoplanets
Planets Orbiting Pulsars Should Have Strange and Beautiful Auroras. And We Could Detect Them
We have been treated to some amazing aurora displays over recent months. The enigmatic lights are caused by charged particles…
Exomoons Defy Discovery
For a long time, we wondered if other stars hosted planets like the Sun does. Finally, in the 1990s, we…
Amateur Astronomers Found Planets Crashing Into Each Other
Astronomy is one of the sciences where amateurs make regular contributions. Over the years, members of the public have made…
ESA’s Ariel Mission is Approved to Begin Construction
We're about to learn a lot more about exoplanets. The ESA has just approved the construction of its Ariel mission,…
Astronomers Calculate Which Exoplanets Are Most Likely to Have Water
Astronomers know of about 60 rocky exoplanets orbiting in the habitable zones of their stars. When they try to determine…
This Planet is Way Too Big for its Star
Scientists love outliers. Outliers are nature's way of telling us what its boundaries are and where its limits lie. Rather…
A Planetary System With Six Sub-Neptunes Locked in Perfect Resonance
Researchers using TESS and Cheops data found a system with six sub-Neptune-sized planets, all orbiting in direct resonance with each…
Where are All the Double Planets?
A recent study published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society examines formation mechanisms for how binary planets—two…
Wow. JWST Just Found Methane in an Exoplanet Atmosphere
If there's one chemical that causes excitement in the search for biosignatures on other worlds, it's methane. It's not a…
Hubble Succeeds Where TESS Couldn’t: It Measured the Nearest Transiting Earth-Sized Planet
Twenty-two light-years away, a rocky world orbits a red dwarf. It's called LTT 1445Ac, and NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite…