atmospheres
An Earth-sized Exoplanet Found Orbiting a Jupiter-Sized Star
Red dwarf stars, also known as M-dwarfs, dominate the Milky Way's stellar population. They can last for 100 billion years…
Atmospheres in the TRAPPIST-1 System Should be Long Gone
When the TRAPPIST-1 system was discovered, astronomers were elated to find seven Earth-sized worlds, three in the star's habitable zone.…
Worlds Bustling With Plantlife Should Shine in a Detectable Wavelength of Infrared
Future historians might look back on this time and call it the 'exoplanet age.' We've found over 5,000 exoplanets, and…
Scientists Discover a New Way Exoplanets Could Make Oxygen; Unfortunately, it Doesn’t Require Life
Finding oxygen in an exoplanet's atmosphere is a clue that life may be at work. On Earth, photosynthetic organisms absorb…
It’s Not Conclusive, But Methane is Probably the Best Sign of Life on Exoplanets
When the James Webb Space Telescope aims at exoplanet atmospheres, it'll use spectroscopy to identify chemical elements. One of the…
Smaller, Ground-Based Telescopes can Study Exoplanet Atmospheres too
The next step to understanding exoplanets is to understand their atmospheres better. Astronomers can determine a planet's mass, density, and…
Why are Neptune and Uranus Different Colors?
New research reveals why Uranus and Neptune are different shades of blue.
Stellar Flares May Not Condemn a Planet’s Habitability
Red dwarf stars are the most common kind of star in our neighbourhood, and probably in the Milky Way. Because…
An Exoplanet So Hot There Are 7 Different Kinds of Gaseous Metals in its Atmosphere
The search for exoplanets has revealed types of planets that are nothing like the worlds in our own Solar System.…
James Webb Will Look for Signs of Life on Planets Orbiting Dead Stars
Can the galaxy's dead stars help us in our search for life? A group of researchers from Cornell University thinks…