spectroscopy
Astronomers Find a Strange Lopsided Planet
I’ve often stated that planets come in a wide range of sizes but rarely do I find myself stating they…
An Earth-sized Exoplanet Found Orbiting a Jupiter-Sized Star
Red dwarf stars, also known as M-dwarfs, dominate the Milky Way's stellar population. They can last for 100 billion years…
Sorry Spock, But “Vulcan” Isn’t a Planet After All
In 2018, astronomers detected an exoplanet around the star 40 Eridani. It's about 16 light-years away in the constellation Eridanus.…
Did You Hear Webb Found Life on an Exoplanet? Not so Fast…
The JWST is astronomers' best tool for probing exoplanet atmospheres. Its capable instruments can dissect the light passing through a…
Is the JWST Now an Interplanetary Meteorologist?
The JWST keeps one-upping itself. In the telescope's latest act of outdoing itself, it examined a distant exoplanet to map…
What a Swarm of Probes Can Teach Us About Proxima Centauri B
You've likely heard of the Breakthrough Starshot (BTS) initiative. BTS aims to send tiny gram-scale, light sail picospacecraft to our…
A Super-Earth (and Possible Earth-Sized) Exoplanet Found in the Habitable Zone
Astronomers have found a new Super-Earth orbiting an M-dwarf (red dwarf) star about 137 light-years away. The planet is named…
Weather in the Solar System Can Teach Us About Weather on Exoplanets
The way astronomers study planets in our own solar system is surprisingly similar to the way they study exoplanets, despite…
Why Was it Tricky to Know the Distances to Galaxies JWST Was Seeing?
One of the chief objectives of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is to study the formation and evolution of…
ESA’s Ariel Mission is Approved to Begin Construction
We're about to learn a lot more about exoplanets. The ESA has just approved the construction of its Ariel mission,…