Extrasolar Planets
Super-Massive Planet Discovered
It's been a week of planetary discoveries. Here's another. This latest find announced by the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA)…
COROT Turns Up its First Planet
The European Space Agency's COROT planet hunting observatory turned up its first planet - a hot Jupiter - surprising its…
Podcast: Discovering Another Earth
What a week! Astronomers announced the discovery of an Earth-sized planet orbiting the nearby star Gliese 581. We talk about…
Cooler Stars Need to Keep Out of the Danger Zone
If you're a newly forming star system, there's no better place to be than a stellar nursery. All those raw…
Earth-Sized Planet Discovered in the Habitable Zone
Great big Jupiter-like planets are one thing, but the Holy Grail of extrasolar planetary discover is going to be another…
Aliens on This World Would See a Double Sunset
Imagine a world orbiting a star in a binary system. Two stars would shine in the day, and the rare…
Exoplanet is Hot and Dry
Astronomers working with the Spitzer Space Telescope announced a tremendous new advance today, when they used the great observatory to…
Hubble Sees An Extrasolar Planet’s Atmosphere
Now here's a feat. The Hubble Space Telescope was able to analyze the atmosphere of a gas giant planet orbiting…
Planets Born to a Dying Star
Young stars and new planets go hand-in-hand. But that might not always be the case. An international team of astronomers…
Blizzard of Snowflake Particles Around a Young Star
The Hubble Space Telescope has imaged a ring of dust around a nearby star that will probably become a system…