Aug 4, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Using data from TRAPPIST-South/North, SPECULOOS, and MuSCAT3 facilities, astronomers have discovered an unusual Jupiter-sized exoplanet orbiting the red...

Jul 31, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

A process called photoevaporation is a potential explanation for several features within exoplanet demographics. Atmospheric escape observed in young Neptune-sized...

Jul 26, 2023 by News Staff

The formation of giant planets has traditionally been divided into two pathways: core accretion and gravitational instability. However, in recent years,...

Jul 25, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Terrestrial and sub-Neptune exoplanets are expected to form in the inner regions of protoplanetary disks around their parent stars. Water plays a key role...

Jul 20, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

PDS 70, a young K7-type star some 370 light-years away from Earth in the constellation of Centaurus, is a unique target for planetary formation studies...

Jul 10, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Aside from the Moon, the brightest object in our night sky is planet Venus, whose thick cloud layer reflects around 75% of the Sun’s light. By comparison,...

Jul 4, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

The giant exoplanet AF Leporis b orbits a 1.2-solar-mass star in the 24-million-year-old beta Pictoris moving group. The direct image of the giant exoplanet...

Jun 28, 2023 by News Staff

The giant planet 8 Ursae Minoris b (also known as Halla) orbits the core-helium-burning red giant star 8 Ursae Minoris (Baekdu). At a distance of only...

Jun 28, 2023 by News Staff

Planets form in dusty, gas-rich circumstellar disks around young stars, while at the same time, the planet formation process alters the physical and chemical...

Jun 26, 2023 by News Staff

The vital role of a carbon molecule called methyl cation (CH3+) in interstellar carbon chemistry was predicted in the 1970s, but the unique capabilities...

Jun 23, 2023 by News Staff

Seven rocky planets orbit the nearby dwarf star TRAPPIST-1, providing a unique opportunity to search for atmospheres on small planets outside the Solar...

Jun 22, 2023 by Natali Anderson

Venus and Earth provide astonishingly different views of the evolution of a rocky planet, raising the question of why these two rocky worlds evolved so...

Jun 15, 2023 by News Staff

Plate tectonics is a fundamental factor in the sustained habitability of Earth, but its time of onset is unknown, with ages ranging from the Hadean to...

Jun 13, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Circumbinary planetary systems contain planets that orbit around two stars in the center instead of just one, like in our Solar System. An artist’s rendition...

Jun 5, 2023 by News Staff

According to quantum mechanics, a vacuum state is populated by virtual particle pairs undergoing spontaneous creation and annihilation processes. These...

Jun 3, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

NASA’s Kepler space telescope was responsible for the discovery of over 2,700 confirmed extrasolar planets, more than half of the total number of exoplanets...

Jun 2, 2023 by News Staff

The Breakthrough Listen Investigation for Periodic Spectral Signals (BLIPSS) is a novel software architecture utilizing a fast folding algorithm to enable...

May 29, 2023 by News Staff

A team of U.S. astronomers has discovered that two-thirds of the planets around M dwarfs (red dwarf stars) could be roasted by extreme tidal forces, sterilizing...

May 25, 2023 by Natali Anderson

Using data from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and several ground-based telescopes, astronomers have discovered and validated a...

May 19, 2023 by Natali Anderson

The newly-discovered planet has a radius of 1.03 Earth radii and a temperature between 27 and 127 degrees Celsius (81-261 degrees Fahrenheit), with the...