Discovery of a nearby super-Earth with only five times our mass
Red dwarf stars have proven to be a treasure trove for exoplanet hunters in recent years. In addition to multiple exoplanets candidates being detected around stars like TRAPPIST-1, Gliese 581, Gliese...
View ArticleVLT to search for planets in Alpha Centauri system
ESO has signed an agreement with the Breakthrough Initiatives to adapt the Very Large Telescope instrumentation in Chile to conduct a search for planets in the nearby star system Alpha Centauri. Such...
View ArticleA catalog of habitable zone exoplanets
The last two decades have seen an explosion of detections of exoplanets, as the sensitivity to smaller planets has dramatically improved thanks especially to the Kepler mission. These discoveries have...
View ArticleAstronomers search for signs of life on Wolf 1061 exoplanet
Is there anybody out there? The question of whether Earthlings are alone in the universe has puzzled everyone from biologists and physicists to philosophers and filmmakers. It's also the driving force...
View ArticleChurchill's search for ET
War correspondent, statesman, astronomer. Stargazing may not be what Winston Churchill is best remembered for, but a treatise he wrote on extraterrestrial life has revealed his scientific acumen six...
View ArticleTemperate earth-sized worlds found in extraordinarily rich planetary system...
Astronomers have found a system of seven Earth-sized planets just 40 light-years away. They were detected as they passed in front of their parent star, the dwarf star TRAPPIST-1. Three of them lie in...
View Article7 Earth-size worlds found orbiting star; could hold life
For the first time, astronomers have discovered seven Earth-size planets orbiting a single nearby star—and these new worlds could hold life.
View ArticleVolcanic hydrogen spurs chances of finding exoplanet life
Hunting for habitable exoplanets now may be easier: Cornell University astronomers report that hydrogen pouring from volcanic sources on planets throughout the universe could improve the chances of...
View ArticleProbing seven worlds with NASA's James Webb Space Telescope
With the discovery of seven earth-sized planets around the TRAPPIST-1 star 40 light years away, astronomers are looking to the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope to help us find out if any of these...
View ArticleThe space weather forecast for Proxima Centauri B
Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the Earth (only 4.28 light-years away) is getting a lot of attention these days. It hosts a planet, Proxima Cen b, whose mass is about 1.3 Earth-mass (though it...
View ArticlePossible venus twin discovered around dim star
Astronomers using NASA's Kepler space telescope have found a planet 219 light-years away that seems to be a close relative to Venus. This newly discovered world is only slightly larger than Earth, and...
View ArticleEarth-sized 'Tatooine' planets could be habitable
With two suns in its sky, Luke Skywalker's home planet Tatooine in "Star Wars" looks like a parched, sandy desert world. In real life, thanks to observatories such as NASA's Kepler space telescope, we...
View ArticleOceans galore: new study suggests most habitable planets may lack dry land
When it comes to exploring exoplanets, it may be wise to take a snorkel along. A new study, published in a paper in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, has used a statistical...
View ArticleRecently discovered solar system could seed life between adjacent exoplanets
After NASA announced in February the discovery of a solar system with seven planets—three of which were deemed potentially habitable—UChicago postdoctoral scholar Sebastiaan Krijt began wondering: If a...
View ArticleNext breakthroughs in exoplanet discovery
It was a good week for astrobiology. Within days of NASA's announcement that the necessary ingredients for life exist in the plumes erupting from the southern pole of Saturn's moon Enceladus,...
View ArticleAstronomers discover 'super-Earth' planet orbiting nearby star
(Phys.org)—European astronomers report the detection of a new extrasolar world several times more massive than Earth. The newly found exoplanet, classified as a so-called "super-Earth," is circling a...
View ArticleResearchers advocate statistical approach to search for Earth-like planets
A team of astronomers at the University of Chicago and Grinnell College seeks to change the way scientists approach the search for Earth-like planets orbiting stars other than the sun. They favor...
View ArticleEurope okays project to seek alien life
Europe has approved the launch of a deep-space observatory to sniff out habitable planets in other star systems, along with any life forms they may host.
View ArticleKepler has taught us that rocky planets are common
Rocky planets are probably a whole lot more common in our galaxy than astronomers previously believed—according to the latest release of Kepler Space Telescope data last week—a scenario that enhances...
View ArticleHidden stars may make planets appear smaller
In the search for planets similar to our own, an important point of comparison is the planet's density. A low density tells scientists a planet is more likely to be gaseous like Jupiter, and a high...
View ArticleMore to life than the habitable zone
Two separate teams of scientists have identified major challenges for the development of life in what has recently become one of the most famous exoplanet systems, TRAPPIST-1.
View ArticleUltraviolet light may be ultra important in search for life
In everyday life, ultraviolet, or UV, light earns a bad reputation for being responsible for sunburns and other harmful effects on humans. However, research suggests that UV light may have played a...
View ArticleAre we being watched? Tens of other worlds could spot the Earth
A group of scientists from Queen's University Belfast and the Max Planck Institute for solar system Research in Germany have turned exoplanet-hunting on its head, in a study that instead looks at how...
View ArticleMine craft for Mars
If there are habitable conditions on Mars, they may be underground. Scientists from around the world are now testing how to live on other planets by venturing a kilometre beneath the surface in a UK...
View ArticleOur living planet shapes the search for life beyond Earth
As a young scientist, Tony del Genio of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City met Clyde Tombaugh, the discoverer of Pluto.
View ArticleTwo super-Earths around star K2-18
New research using data collected by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) has revealed that a little-known exoplanet called K2-18b could well be a scaled-up version of Earth.
View ArticleSpanning disciplines in the search for life beyond Earth
The search for life beyond Earth is riding a surge of creativity and innovation. Following a gold rush of exoplanet discovery over the past two decades, it is time to tackle the next step: determining...
View ArticleMars mission sheds light on habitability of distant planets
How long might a rocky, Mars-like planet be habitable if it were orbiting a red dwarf star? It's a complex question but one that NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution mission can help answer.
View ArticleA new approach for detecting planets in the Alpha Centauri system
Yale astronomers have taken a fresh look at the nearby Alpha Centauri star system and found new ways to narrow the search for habitable planets there.
View ArticleHabitable planets around pulsars theoretically possible
It is theoretically possible that habitable planets exist around pulsars. Such planets must have an enormous atmosphere that convert the deadly X-rays and high energy particles of the pulsar into heat....
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