Tagged: exoplanets

Twenty-four years ago, Swiss astronomers Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz discovered the first planet orbiting a sun-like star outside our solar system—a milestone recognised by this year’s Nobel prize in physics. Today we know of thousands more ‘exoplanets,” and researchers are now trying to understand...

NASA has put together an artist’s impression of what the view might look like from the surface of Trappist-1d With its stunning red skies, this is the view from an Earth-like planet that could host alien life. A 360 degree video was published by NASA...

Just 11 light years away from Earth a pair of hot, rocky worlds orbit a small, red star that is unusually calm. The fact that these objects are so nearby – in cosmic terms – makes them relatively easy to study, and a potential third...

While telescopes in space can scan the sky without interference from Earth’s clouds, they still run into problems from hazes on other planets. To get around foggy skies, researchers have simulated haze formation in exoplanet atmospheres in hopes of better understanding future observations made with...

Data from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has given scientists a first glimpse into conditions on the surface of a rocky exoplanet beyond the solar system. Planet LHS 3844b is located 48.6 light-years from Earth and has a radius 1.3 times that of Earth, according to...

A shocking new study says that water is “common” on exoplanets, potentially changing how we look at planet formation and upending the search for extraterrestrial life. Researchers from the University of Cambridge looked at data of 19 exoplanets and found water vapor on 14 of...

An exoplanet twice the size of Earth, known as Wolf 503b, has been found just 145 light-years away from our home planet. The researchers noted that Wolf 503b is interesting not only because of its size (it may potentially be a “Super-Earth”), but also because...

A recently discovered exoplanet is “potentially habitable,” according to a newly published study. Known as K2-18b, the planet is 124 light-years from Earth and is in the “habitable zone” around its star, a sign that “it’s possible for the planet to host liquid water at...

Now we’re detecting dozens of exoplanets within the habitable zones of their stars — and even one world that has similar characteristics as Earth — the next big question will be: do any of these promising worlds host life? Unfortunately, the answer will remain elusive...

An astronomy student from the University of British Columbia has discovered 17 new exoplanets, including one that is roughly the same size as Earth. Michelle Kunimoto, a Ph.D. candidate at the university, discovered the planets using NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope, according to research published in...