exoplanets
A Planet Was Swallowed by a Red Giant, But it Survived
When our Sun runs out of hydrogen fuel in its core, it'll switch to burning helium and bloat up as…
A Direct Image of a Planet That’s Just Like Jupiter, Only Younger
In a recent study published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, a team of astronomers used the W. M. Keck Observatory…
There Could Be Captured Planets in the Oort Cloud
The early Solar System was a turbulent and chaotic place with icy material hurled far from the Sun, becoming the…
Can We Predict if a System Will Have Giant Planets?
Prediction is one of the hallmarks of scientific endeavors. Scientists pride themselves on being able to predict physical realities based…
We Could See the Glint off Giant Cities on Alien Worlds
How large would an extraterrestrial city have to be for current telescopes to see it? Would it need to be…
This Hot Jupiter is Leaving a Swirling Tail of Helium in its Wake
In a recent study published in Science Advances, a team of researchers commissioned the Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET), which is designed…
Did Life Need Plate Tectonics to Emerge?
It's widely accepted that Earth's plate tectonics are a key factor in life's emergence. Plate tectonics allows heat to move…
Is it Time for a New Definition of “Habitable?”
Things tend to move from the simple to the complex when you're trying to understand something new. This is the…
JWST Scans an Ultra-Hot Jupiter’s Atmosphere
When astronomers discovered WASP-18b in 2009, they uncovered one of the most unusual planets ever found. It's ten times as…
A Third of Planets Orbiting Red Dwarf Stars Could be in the Habitable Zone
A recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a pair of researchers from the University…