exoplanets
New Study Examines How Extraterrestrial Civilizations Could Become “Stellarvores.”
One of the most challenging aspects of astrobiology and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) is anticipating what life and…
Project Hyperion is Seeking Ideas for Building Humanity’s First Generation Ship
The dream of traversing the depths of space and planting the seed of human civilization on another planet has existed…
Establishing a New Habitability Metric for Future Astrobiology Surveys
The search for exoplanets has grown immensely in recent decades thanks to next-generation observatories and instruments. The current census is…
Astronomers Solve the Mystery of the Famed Brown Dwarf That is Too Bright: It’s Twins!
In 1995, Caltech researchers at the Institute's Palomar Observatory first observed what appeared to be a brown dwarf orbiting Gliese…
A Possible Exomoon Could be Volcanic, like Jupiter’s Moon Io
In 2012, astronomers detected a gas giant transiting in front of WASP-49A, a G-type star located about 635 light-years from…
Exoplanet Discovered in a Binary System Could Explain Why Red Dwarfs Form Massive Planets
In recent years, the number of known extrasolar planets (aka. exoplanets) has grown exponentially. To date, 5,799 exoplanets have been…
We Don’t See Many Planets in Old Triple Star Systems
Why is it important to search for exoplanets in triple star systems and how many can we find there? This…
Advanced Civilizations Will Overheat Their Planets Within 1,000 Years
Earth's average global temperatures have been steadily increasing since the Industrial Revolution. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency…
Plants Would Still Grow Well Under Alien Skies
Photosynthesis changed Earth in powerful ways. When photosynthetic organisms appeared, it led to the Great Oxygenation Event. That allowed multicellular…
Astronomers Have Found a Star with a Hot Jupiter and a Cold Super Jupiter in Orbit
Located in the constellation Ursa Major, roughly 300 light-years from Earth, is the Sun-like star HD 118203 (Liesma). In 2006,…