Exoplanets | SpaceRef

Exoplanets TOP STORY

Hints Of A Volcanically Active Exomoon

Volcanic Exomoon

Jupiter's moon Io is the most volcanically active body in our solar system. Today, there are indications that an active moon outside our solar system, an exo-Io, could be hidden at the exoplanet system WASP-49b.

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Exoplanets

Constraining the Formation of the Four Terrestrial Planets in the Solar System

Terrestrial Planets

To reproduce the orbits and masses of the terrestrial planets (analogs) of the solar system, most studies scrutinize simulations for success as a batch. However, there is insufficient discussion in the literature on the likelihood of forming planet analogs simultaneously in the same system (analog system).

Exoplanets

Hubble Uncovers a 'Heavy Metal' Exoplanet Shaped Like a Football

How can a planet be "hotter than hot?" The answer is when heavy metals are detected escaping from the planet's atmosphere, instead of condensing into clouds.

Exoplanets

Confirmation of Toasty TESS Planet Leads to Surprising Find of Promising World

A piping hot planet discovered by NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has pointed the way to additional worlds orbiting the same star, one of which is located in the star's habitable zone.

Exoplanets

TESS Discovers Three New Worlds

NASA's newest planet hunter, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), has discovered three new worlds -- one slightly larger than Earth and two of a type not found in our solar system -- orbiting a nearby star.

Exoplanets

Moon-Forming Disk Discovered Around Distant Planet

Using Earth's most powerful array of radio telescopes, astronomers have made the first observations of a circumplanetary disk of gas and dust like the one that is believed to have birthed the moons of Jupiter.

Exoplanets

Atmosphere Of Mid-size Exoplanet Revealed By Hubble and Spitzer

Two NASA space telescopes have teamed up to identify, for the first time, the detailed chemical "fingerprint" of a planet between the sizes of Earth and Neptune. No planets like this can be found in our own solar system, but they are common around other stars.

Exoplanets

TESS Finds Its Smallest Planet Yet

NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has discovered a world between the sizes of Mars and Earth orbiting a bright, cool, nearby star. The planet, called L 98-59b, marks the tiniest discovered by TESS to date.

Exoplanets

18 Earth-sized Exoplanets Discovered

Somewhat more than 4000 planets orbiting stars outside our solar system are known so far.

Exoplanets

Small, Hardy Planets Most Likely To Survive Death Of Their Stars

Small, hardy planets packed with dense elements have the best chance of avoiding being crushed and swallowed up when their host star dies, new research from the University of Warwick has found.

Exoplanets

Gravitational Forces in Protoplanetary Disks May Push Super-Earths Close To Their Stars

The galaxy is littered with planetary systems vastly different from ours.

Exoplanets

Ashes Of A Dying Star Hold Clues About Our Solar System's Birth

A grain of dust forged in the death throes of a long-gone star was discovered by a team of researchers led by the University of Arizona.

Exoplanets

Third Planet Discovered In The Kepler-47 Circumbinary System

Using data from NASA's Kepler space telescope, a team of researchers, led by astronomers at San Diego State University, detected the new Neptune-to-Saturn-size planet orbiting between two previously known planets.

Exoplanets

TESS Finds Its First Earth-sized Planet

A nearby system hosts the first Earth-sized planet discovered by NASA's Transiting Exoplanets Survey Satellite, as well as a warm sub-Neptune-sized world.

Exoplanets

Heavy Metal Planet Fragment Survives Destruction From A Dead Star

A fragment of a planet that has survived the death of its star has been discovered by University of Warwick astronomers in a disc of debris formed from destroyed planets, which the star ultimately consumes.

Exoplanets

Astronomers Discover Two New Planets Using Artificial Intelligence

Astronomers at The University of Texas at Austin, in partnership with Google, have used artificial intelligence (AI) to uncover two more hidden planets in the Kepler space telescope archive.