exoplanets
Hubble has Characterized 25 Hot Jupiters. Here’s What we Know so far
Hot Jupiters are giant exoplanets – even more massive than Jupiter – but they orbit closer to their star than…
Hubble Checks the Weather on Hot Jupiters. Forecast: 100% Chance of Hellish Conditions
While the Hubble Space Telescope celebrates 32 years in orbit, like a fine wine, it has only gotten better with…
A Fleet of Space Telescopes Flying in Formation Could Reveal Details on Exoplanets
We've found thousands of exoplanets in the last couple of decades. We've discovered exoplanets unlike anything in our own Solar…
Just a Few Pixels Would let Astronomers Map Surface Features on an Exoplanet Like Oceans and Deserts
Direct images of exoplanets are rare and lack detail. Future observatories might change that, but for now, exoplanet images don't…
Digging Through Kepler Data Turns Up a Near Twin of Jupiter
NASA's Kepler planet-hunting spacecraft was deactivated in November 2018, about ten years after it launched. The mission detected over 5,000…
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…
Dust Might Reveal the Presence of Habitable Planets
NASA's next great space telescope should launch no later than 2027. The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is a powerful…
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…
Planets Have Just Started to Form in This Binary System
Astronomers have watched the young binary star system SVS 13 for decades. Astronomers don't know much about how planets form…
Astronomers Scan 800 Pulsars to See If Any of Them Have Planets
Astronomers discovered the first exoplanets in 1992. They found a pair of them orbiting the pulsar PSR B1257+12 about 2300…