Exoplanets TOP STORY
Young Binary Star System May Form planets With Weird Orbits 
© NRAO
Binary star system HK Tau
Unlike our solitary Sun, most stars form in binary pairs -- two stars that orbit a common center of mass. Though remarkably plentiful, binaries pose a number of questions, including how and where planets form in such complex environments.
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Exoplanets
The Hubble Space Telescope Finds Three Surprisingly Dry Exoplanets
© NASA
Artistic illustration of the gas giant planet HD 209458b.
Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have gone looking for water vapor in the atmospheres of three planets orbiting stars similar to the sun -- and have come up nearly dry.
Exoplanets
Researchers Discover Transiting Exoplanet with Longest Known Year
Astronomers have discovered a transiting exoplanet with the longest known year. Kepler-421b circles its star once every 704 days.
Exoplanets
New Technique Used for Sun-like Stars Reveal Their Ages
Defining what makes a star "Sun-like" is as difficult as defining what makes a planet "Earth-like." A solar twin should have a temperature, mass, and spectral type similar to our Sun.
Exoplanets
Possible Exomoon Found
Titan, Europa, Io and Phobos are just a few members of our solar system's pantheon of moons. Are there are other moons out there, orbiting planets beyond our sun?
Exoplanets
Studying Other Worlds with the Help of a Starshade 
This animation shows the prototype starshade, a giant structure designed to block the glare of stars so that future space telescopes can take pictures of planets.
Exoplanets
Death Stars in Orion Blast Planets Before They Even Form
The Orion Nebula is home to hundreds of young stars and even younger protostars known as proplyds.
Exoplanets
Nearby Star's Icy Debris Suggests 'Shepherd' Planet
An international team of astronomers exploring the disk of gas and dust around a nearby star have uncovered a compact cloud of poisonous gas formed by ongoing rapid-fire collisions among a swarm of icy, comet-like bodies.
Exoplanets
Kepler Finds a Very Wobbly Planet
Imagine living on a planet with seasons so erratic you would hardly know whether to wear Bermuda shorts or a heavy overcoat.
Exoplanets
Hubble Hangout: Disk Detective - Finding the Birthplace of Planets
Scientists are combing the galaxy looking for stars that could be harboring planet-forming disks. They need your help to explain this puzzling part of stellar evolution.
Exoplanets
Rare Brown Dwarf Discovery Provides Benchmark for Exoplanet Research
A team of researchers has directly imaged a very rare type of brown dwarf that can serve as a benchmark for studying objects with masses that lie between stars and planets.
Exoplanets
New Kind of Planet or a Failed Star?
An object discovered by astrophysicists at the University of Toronto nearly 500 light years away from the Sun may challenge traditional understandings about how planets and stars form.
Exoplanets
Newfound Planet Is Earth-mass But Gassy
An international team of astronomers has discovered the first Earth-mass planet that transits, or crosses in front of, its host star. KOI-314c is the lightest planet to have both its mass and physical size measured.
Exoplanets
Hubble Reveals Cloudy Weather on Extrasolar Planet
Weather forecasters on exoplanet GJ 1214b would have an easy job. Today's forecast: cloudy. Tomorrow: overcast. Extended outlook: more clouds.
Exoplanets
Are Comets the Key to Curious Fomalhaut Exoplanet System?
The nearby star Fomalhaut A hosts the most famous planetary system outside our own solar system, containing both an exoplanet and a spectacular ring of comets.
Exoplanets
Sub-Earth-Mass Moon Orbiting a Gas Giant Primary or a High Velocity Planetary System in the Galactic Bulge
We present the first microlensing candidate for a free-floating exoplanet-exomoon system, MOA-2011-BLG-262, with a primary lens mass of M_host ~ 4 Jupiter masses hosting a sub-Earth mass moon.
More top stories from February.
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Studying Other Worlds with the Help of a Starshade
Nearby Star's Icy Debris Suggests 'Shepherd' Planet
Hubble Hangout: Disk Detective - Finding the Birthplace of Planets
The Attraction of Hot Jupiters
Hubble's Universe Unfiltered: Planet Discoveries Revisited
Project 1640 Sees Exoplanets 128 Light Years Away
Exoplanets Detection, Atmospheres and Habitability Lecture
Hubble Captures Dramatic Changes on a Faraway Planet
JPL Proposes FINESSE Mission for Exoplanets Atmosphere Detection
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