Extrasolar Planets
Squadrons of Planet Hunters Could Find Life
The Hubble Space Telescope demonstrated that the best viewing is outside the Earth's atmosphere. Over the years, a series of…
Protoplanetary Disk Warped by a Hidden Companion
New images of a relatively nearby protoplanetary disk, taken by the Subaru telescope on Mauna Kea, show strange banana-shaped arcs…
Rotating Disk Could Contain Newly Forming Planets
Astronomers from the University of St. Andrews have found evidence that a ring of dust around nearby Epsilon Eridani is…
How Super Earths Might Form
Although our Solar System only contains a "regular Earth", astronomers predict that other systems could contain "super Earths"; rocky planets…
Large Amounts of Carbon Around a Distant Star
Astronomers have discovered a solar system with an unusually high amount of carbon; it could be at the stage where…
Metal in Planets Depends on Their Stars
Correlation between the heavy elements in transiting planets and the metallicity of their parents. Image credit: A&A. Click to enlarge…
Amateur Team Finds an Extrasolar Planet
Artist's Concept of Transiting Planet XO-1b. Image credit: NASA/ESA/STScI. Click to enlarge Amateur astronomers have used inexpensive equipment to discover…
Super Earths Might Be Common
Artist illustration of a super Earth. Image credit: CfA. Click to enlarge. Nearly all the extrasolar planets discovered have been…
Block Starlight to See Planets
University of Arizona researchers have developed an "optical vortex mask" that will block the starlight from a bright star, so…
Nearby Exoplanet is Scorching Hot
NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has uncovered a hot extrasolar planet orbiting a nearby star. Planet HD 189733b orbits its parent…