Machine Learning Will be one of the Best Ways to Identify Habitable Exoplanets
A new study has shown how machine learning will aid next-generation telescopes in the search for water on exoplanets.
ESA’s ARIEL Mission Will Study the Atmospheres of More Than 1,000 Exoplanets
We found our first exoplanets orbiting a pulsar in 1992. Since then, we’ve discovered many thousands more. Those were the first steps in identifying other worlds that could harbour life. Now planetary scientists want to take the next step: studying exoplanet atmospheres. The ESA’s ARIEL mission will be a powerful tool.
A Machine-Learning Algorithm Just Found 301 Additional Planets in Kepler Data
Using a new type of deep-learning algorithm, a team of NASA scientists have detected 301 more exoplanets in the Kepler archive!
A Space Telescope With one job: Find Habitable Planets at Alpha Centauri
Breakthrough Initiatives just announced a collaborative effort to launch a space telescope that will search for habitable planets around Alpha Centauri
Eggshell Planets Have a Thin Brittle Crust and No Mountains or Tectonics
Planets without plate tectonics are unlikely to be habitable. But currently, we’ve never seen the surface of an exoplanet to determine if plate tectonics are active. Scientists piece together their likely surface structures from other evidence. Is there a way to determine what exoplanets might be eggshells, and eliminate them as potentially habitable? The authors …
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Maybe There’s No Way to Tell if Habitable Planets Orbit Proxima Centauri… Yet!
In a new study, a team of astronomers come to the conclusion that Proxima b will ever be detected making transits in front of Proxima Centauri, which will make it harder to characterize.
Rogue Planets Could be Habitable
The search for potentially habitable planets is focused on exoplanets—planets orbiting other stars—for good reason. The only planet we know of with life is Earth and sunlight fuels life here. But some estimates say there are many more rogue planets roaming through space, not bound to or warmed by any star. Could some of them …
Astronomers See Carbon-Rich Nebulae Where Planets are Forming
Understanding the birth of a planet is a challenging puzzle. We know that planets form inside clouds of gas and dust that surround new stars, known as protoplanetary disks. But grasping exactly how that process works – connecting the dots between a dust cloud and a finished planet – is not easy. An international team …
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Protoplanetary Disks Throw Out More Material Than Gets Turned Into Planets
When a young solar system gets going it’s little more than a young star and a rotating disk of debris. Accepted thinking says that the swirling debris is swept up in planet formation. But a new study says that much of the matter in the disk could face a different fate. It may not have …
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Rocky Planet Found With Only Half the Mass of Venus
When it comes to finding exoplanets, size matters, but so does weight. The larger and heavier the planet, the more likely they will be discovered by the current crop of telescopes. Both the techniques to find exoplanets and the telescopes using those techniques are biased toward larger, heavier planets. So when even the current crop …
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