spectroscopy
New Technique to Search for Life, Whether or not it’s Similar to Earth Life
A new tool for measuring the complexity of molecules is able to identify those that must have formed in the…
Astronomers Find a Planet Like Jupiter, but It Doesn’t Have any Clouds
Can you picture Jupiter without any observable clouds or haze? It isn't easy since Jupiter's latitudinal cloud bands and its…
The Color of Habitable Worlds
“This is where we live. On a Blue Dot.” said Carl Sagan when the now famous Pale Blue Dot photo…
James Webb Will Look for Signs of Life on Planets Orbiting Dead Stars
Can the galaxy's dead stars help us in our search for life? A group of researchers from Cornell University thinks…
There’s No Chemical Difference Between Stars With or Without Planets
Strange New Worlds Imagine if a star could tell you it had planets. That would be really helpful because finding…
Extremely Hot Exoplanets Can Have Extreme Weather, Like Clouds of Aluminum Oxide and Titanium Rain
Thanks to the success of the Kepler mission, we know that there are multitudes of exoplanets of a type called…
Astronomers Detect Water in the Atmosphere of a Planet 179 Light-Years Away
Gathering detailed information on exoplanets is extremely difficult. The light from their host star overwhelms the light from the exoplanet,…
The Power of the Wobble: Finding Exoplanets in the Shifting of Starlight
They say there's more than one way to skin an interstellar cat, and in astronomy there's more than one way…
Astronomy Cast Ep. 502: No Touching: Determining Composition of Worlds Remotely
We're not learning that the vast majority of potentially habitable worlds out there are actually icy moons like Europa and…
Farthest Galaxy Ever Seen Viewed By Hubble Telescope
Using Hubble, an international team of astronomers just observed the farthest galaxy ever seen in the universe, shattering the previous…