Could Alien Worlds Thrive Around Dead Stars?
White dwarf stars, like this one shown shrouded by a planetary nebula, are much smaller than stars like…
Astrophysicists Zero In on Source of Strange Gamma-Ray Signals
Artist’s impression of a MSP binary system. Credit: ESA & Francesco Ferraro (Bologna Astronomical Observatory) Millisecond pulsar binaries…
Mysterious “Soot Planets” May Be Hiding in Plain Sight Among the Stars
Artist’s depiction of a “soot planet” and its formation process. Credit: Ari Gea/SayoStudio Some planets may be soot-rich…
Earth-Like Planet GJ 1132 B Has No Atmosphere
Artist’s impression of exoplanet GJ 1132 b and its host M-dwarf star. Credit: Dana Berry, Skyworks Digital, CfA…
Webb Telescope Spots a “Blob” Near a Star, but Is It a Planet?
Artist’s depiction of the Epsilon Eridani system, including the elusive planet Epsilon Eridani b. Credit: NASA/SOFIA/Lynette Cook JWST…
For the First Time, Astronomers See a Baby Planet Still Glowing From Birth
Image of a dusty disk around a young star. Among the multiple concentric rings we see a small…
This Weirdly Brilliant Telescope Design Might Finally Uncover Earth’s Twin
Concept design for a rectangular space telescope, modeled after the Diffractive Interfero Coronagraph Exoplanet Resolver (DICER), a notional…
Could you survive HD 189733b, the 927°C world that rains razor-sharp glass?
From afar, HD 189733b glimmers like a tranquil jewel, a sapphire-coloured world suspended in the darkness of space.…
JWST Detects Steam on Distant Exoplanets. Could Exotic Water Worlds Rewrite the Search for Life?
Sub-Neptunes may be inhospitable to life as we know it, but their strange water-rich interiors hold secrets about…
Astronomers Spot Growing Protoplanet in Disk Gap around Young Solar Analog
Using the SPHERE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), astronomers have directly imaged a 4.9-Jupiter-mass protoplanet in…
Can Dark Matter Turn Giant Planets Into Black Holes?
Exoplanets might hold hidden clues about dark matter. New research suggests these distant worlds could even collapse into…