Extrasolar Planets
Twin Planemos Discovered
Astronomers have turned up plenty of extrasolar planets, but a newly discovered binary pair of planets is quite the find.…
Earth-Sized Planets Could Be Nearby
Nearly all of the extrasolar planets discovered so far have been huge, Jupiter-sized and above. The question is: could smaller,…
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…