exoplanets
Thin Flat Lenses Could Unleash a Revolution in Space Telescopes
Space telescopes use traditional polished mirrors like ground telescopes, which are heavy, unwieldy, and expensive to build. A new type…
Is This The First Exoplanet Trojan, or the Result of an Epic Collision Between Worlds?
It seems like every week, researchers are finding more and more interesting exoplanets. Many of them have analogs in our…
James Webb is a GO for Cycle 2 Observations!
The observation programs for Cycle 2 of the James Webb Space Telescope have just been announced, and they are a…
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…