EXTRA SOLAR

2,688 articles

Protoplanetary Disk Around a Young Star Exhibits Spiral Structure
Sep 30, 2016 (SPX)
Astronomers have found a distinct structure involving spiral arms in the reservoir of gas and dust disk surrounding the young star Elias 2-27. While spiral feat...
New Low-Mass Objects Could Help Refine Planetary Evolution
Sep 28, 2016 (SPX)
When a star is young, it is often still surrounded by a primordial rotating disk of gas and dust, from which planets can form. Astronomers like to find such dis...
Hubble Finds Planet Orbiting Pair of Stars
Sep 26, 2016 (SPX)
Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, and a trick of nature, have confirmed the existence of a planet orbiting two stars in the system OGLE-2007-BLG-...
Pluto's heart sheds light on a possible buried ocean
Sep 26, 2016 (SPX)
Ever since NASA's New Horizons spacecraft flew by Pluto last year, evidence has been mounting that the dwarf planet may have a liquid ocean beneath its icy shel...
Stellar activity can mimic misaligned exoplanets
Sep 21, 2016 (SPX)
The occultation of stellar active regions during the planetary transit can lead to inaccurate estimates of the characteristics of these exoplanets, especially t...
ALMA locates possible birth site of icy giant planet
Sep 14, 2016 (UPI)
Astronomers have found evidence of a newborn planet in the protoplanetary disk surrounding TW Hydrae, a young star located 176 light-years away. The newly colle...
New light on the complex nature of 'hot Jupiter' atmospheres
Sep 06, 2016 (SPX)
Fascinating new light could be shed on the complex atmospheres of planets which orbit stars outside our own solar system, thanks to pioneering new research. A t...
Discovery one-ups Tatooine, finds twin stars hosting three giant exoplanets
Sep 02, 2016 (SPX)
A team of Carnegie scientists has discovered three giant planets in a binary star system composed of stellar ''twins'' that are also effectively siblings of our...
Could Proxima Centauri b Really Be Habitable
Aug 31, 2016 (SPX)
The world's attention is now on Proxima Centauri b, a possibly Earth-like planet orbiting the closest star, 4.22 light-years away. The planet's orbit is just ri...
Rocky planet found orbiting habitable zone of nearest star
Aug 25, 2016 (SPX)
An international team of astronomers including Carnegie's Paul Butler has found clear evidence of a planet orbiting Proxima Centauri, the closest star to our So...
A new Goldilocks for habitable planets
Aug 22, 2016 (SPX)
The search for habitable, alien worlds needs to make room for a second "Goldilocks," according to a Yale University researcher. For decades, it has been thought...
Venus-like Exoplanet Might Have Oxygen Atmosphere, but Not Life
Aug 19, 2016 (SPX)
The distant planet GJ 1132b intrigued astronomers when it was discovered last year. Located just 39 light-years from Earth, it might have an atmosphere despite ...
Brown dwarfs reveal exoplanets' secrets
Aug 18, 2016 (SPX)
Brown dwarfs are smaller than stars, but more massive than giant planets. As such, they provide a natural link between astronomy and planetary science. However,...
Scientists to unveil new Earth-like planet: report
Aug 12, 2016 (AFP)
Scientists are preparing to unveil a new planet in our galactic neighbourhood which is "believed to be Earth-like" and orbits its star at a distance that could ...
Astronomers catalogs most likely 'second-Earth' candidates
Aug 08, 2016 (SPX)
Looking for another Earth? An international team of researchers has pinpointed which of the more than 4,000 exoplanets discovered by NASA's Kepler mission are m...
NASA's Next Planet Hunter Will Look Closer to Home
Jul 29, 2016 (SPX)
As the search for life on distant planets heats up, NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is bringing this hunt closer to home. Launching in 2017-...
Alien Solar System Boasts Tightly Spaced Planets, Unusual Orbits
Jul 26, 2016 (SPX)
Tightly spaced planets inside an alien solar system known as Kepler-80 boast a rare orbital configuration. The study was led by Mariah MacDonald as an undergrad...
Atmospheric chemistry on paper
Jul 22, 2016 (SPX)
Normally computers speed up calculations. But with his new pen-and-paper formula Kevin Heng of the University of Bern gets his results thousands of times faster...
First atmospheric study of Earth-sized exoplanets reveals rocky worlds
Jul 21, 2016 (SPX)
On May 2, scientists from MIT, the University of Liege, and elsewhere announced they had discovered a planetary system, a mere 40 light years from Earth, that h...
NASA's Kepler Confirms 100+ Exoplanets During Its K2 Mission
Jul 19, 2016 (JPL)
An international team of astronomers has discovered and confirmed a treasure trove of new worlds using NASA's Kepler spacecraft on its K2 mission. Out of 197 in...
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