Exoplanet Lost in Space…
By Annelies Rhemrev.
Orphaned world may help to explain how planets and stars form
Astronomers using ESO’s Very Large Telescope and the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope have identified a body that is very probably a planet wandering through [...]
Potentially Habitable Exoplanet in our Neighborhood Found
By Annelies Rhemrev
An Anglo-German team of astronomers has discovered a new planet orbiting a nearby star at just the right distance for an Earth-like climate that could support life.
This artist’s impression shows HD40307 g in the foreground [...]
The Revival of a ‘Dead’ Exoplanet: Zombie Fomalhaut B
By Annelies Rhemrev
A second look at data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope is reanimating the claim that the nearby star Fomalhaut hosts a massive exoplanet. The study suggests that the planet, named Fomalhaut b, is a rare and possibly [...]
Earth-Like Planet Around Nextdoor Sun-Like Star Found
By Annelies Rhemrev
European astronomers have discovered a planet with about the mass of the Earth orbiting a star in the Alpha Centauri system — the nearest to Earth. It is also the lightest exoplanet ever discovered around a star like the [...]
For the First Time an Exoplanet in a Four-Star System Discovered
By Annelies Rhemrev
The discovery of planets continues to expand beyond the domain of professional astronomers. A joint effort of amateur astronomers and scientists has led to the first reported case of a planet orbiting a double-star that, [...]
The Girl’s Best Friend Found: A Big Diamond Planet
By Annelies Rhemrev
New research led by Yale University scientists suggests that a rocky planet twice Earth’s size orbiting a nearby star is a diamond planet.
Family portraits of two planetary systems: A simulation of the silhouette of [...]
Nearby Planetary System Hosts Comet Crystals, like Our Solar System Does
By Annelies Rhemrev
Pristine material that matches comets in our own Solar System has been found in a dust belt around the young star Beta Pictoris by ESA’s Herschel space observatory.
Close-up of olivine crystals seen inside a meteorite found [...]
Planets Around Pulsars – Can They Support Life?
Pulsars are among the most extreme stars in the Universe: dense balls of matter which are heavier than the Sun, yet only a few tens of kilometres in diameter. They rotate rapidly (up to several hundred revolutions per second) and flash like [...]