exoplanets
New Research Suggests Better Ways To Seek Out Pale Blue Dots
The search for worlds beyond our own is one of humankind's greatest quests. Scientists have found thousands of exoplanets orbiting…
Searching for Alien Worlds and Gravitational Lenses from the Arctic
The quest for optimal sites to carry out astronomical observations has taken scientists to the frigid Arctic. Eric Steinbring, who led a team…
Chaotic Wombs May Birth Wrong-way Planets
We’ve heard it time and time again. When it comes to new exoplanet findings, our conventional wisdom never holds. So…
NASA’s Next Exoplanet Hunter Moves Into Development
NASA's ongoing hunt for exoplanets has entered a new phase as NASA officially confirmed that the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite…
Will Gaia Be Our Next Big Exoplanet Hunter?
Early on the morning of Dec. 19, 2013, the pre-dawn sky above the coastal town of Kourou in French Guiana was briefly sliced by the…
VLTI Detects Exozodiacal Light Around Exoplanets
If you've ever stood outside after twilight has passed, or a few hours before the sun rises at dawn, then…
Moons of Confusion: Why Finding Extraterrestrial Life may be Harder than we Thought
Astronomers and planetary scientists thought they knew how to find evidence of life on planets beyond our Solar System. But,…
Have Astronomers Seen a Forming Planet in Action?
Huge disks of dust and gas encircle many young stars. Some contain circular gaps — likely the result of forming planets…
Astronomers Spot Pebble-Size Dust Grains in the Orion Nebula
Stars and planets form out of vast clouds of dust and gas. Small pockets in these clouds collapse under the…
Can Radio Waves Lead to Exomoons?
I firmly believe that our next greatest discovery will be detecting an exomoon in orbit around a distant exoplanet. Although…