Exoplanets

Small, Tough Planets can Survive the Death of Their Star

Sad fact of the Universe is that all stars will die, eventually. And when they do, what happens to their…

6 years ago

Habitability of Planets Will Depend on Their Interiors

A lot of the headlines and discussion around the habitability of exoplanets is focused on their proximity to their star…

6 years ago

TESS Just Found its First Earth-Sized World

NASA's new planet-hunting telescope, TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite), just found its first Earth-sized world. Though the Earth-sized planet, and…

6 years ago

Ground-Based Telescope Directly Observes the Atmosphere of an Extrasolar Planet, and Sees Swirling Clouds of Iron and Silicates

We've finally got our first optical look at an exoplanet and its atmosphere, and boy is it a strange place.…

6 years ago

It Took 10 Years to Confirm the First Planet Ever Found by Kepler

Even though astronomy people are fond of touting the number of exoplanets found by the Kepler spacecraft, those planets aren't…

6 years ago

Meet WFIRST, The Space Telescope with the Power of 100 Hubbles

WFIRST ain't your grandma's space telescope. Despite having the same size mirror as the surprisingly reliable Hubble Space Telescope, clocking…

6 years ago

Two Newly-Discovered Exoplanets are Probably the Result of a Catastrophic Collision

How can two planets so similar in some respects have such different densities? According to a new study, a catastrophic…

6 years ago

TESS Finds its Third Planet, a sub-Neptune with a 36-Day Orbit

After only three months of operation, NASA's TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) spacecraft is delivering on its mission to find…

6 years ago

New SPECULOOS Telescope Sees First Light. Soon it’ll be Seeing Habitable Planets Around Ultra-Cool Stars

Our newest planet-hunting telescope is up and running at the ESO's Paranal Observatory in the Atacama Desert in Chile. SPECULOOS,…

6 years ago

Now that TESS is Operational, Astronomers Estimate it’ll Find 14,000 Planets. 10 Could Be Earthlike Worlds in a Sunlike Star’s Habitable Zone

How many exoplanets are there? Not that long ago, we didn't know if there were any. Then we detected a…

6 years ago