Exoplanets

Hubble Finds A Planet Forming In An Unconventional Way

Copernicus Detail

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has directly photographed evidence of a Jupiter-like protoplanet forming through what researchers describe as an "intense and violent process." This discovery supports a long-debated theory for how planets like Jupiter form, called "disk instability."

The Start Of The Birth Of Planets In A Binary Star System Observed

Models of planet formation suggest that planets form by the slow aggregation of ice and dust particles in protoplanetary disks around forming stars.

A New Planet Detected Orbiting Proxima Centauri

A team of astronomers using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (ESO's VLT) in Chile have found evidence of another planet orbiting Proxima Centauri, the closest star to our Solar System.

Puffy Planets Lose Atmospheres, Become Super Earths

Exoplanets come in shapes and sizes that are not found in our solar system.

Exoplanets

Extreme Exoplanet Has A Complex And Exotic Atmosphere

An international team including researchers from the University of Bern and the University of Geneva as well as the National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) PlanetS analyzed the atmosphere of one of the most extreme known planets in great detail.

Exoplanets

Citizen Scientists Spot Jupiter-like Planet in NASA TESS Data

Tom Jacobs of Bellevue, Washington, loves treasure hunts.

Exoplanets

Astronomers Detect Signature of Magnetic Field on an Exoplanet

Researchers have identified the first signature of a magnetic field surrounding a planet outside of our solar system.

Exoplanets

Citizen Scientists Find Young-Jupiter-like Object Missed By Previous Exoplanet Searches

Citizen scientists have discovered a new object orbiting a Sun-like star that had been missed by previous searches.

Exoplanets

Study Reveals That Giant Planets Could Reach Maturity Much Earlier Than Previously Thought

An international team of scientists, in which researchers from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) participate together with other institutions from Spain, Italy, Germany, Belgium, UK, and Mexico, has been able to measure the masses of the giant planets of the V1298 Tau system, just 20 million year old.

Exoplanets

UCLA Astronomers Discover More Than 300 Possible New Exoplanets

UCLA astronomers have identified 366 new exoplanets, thanks in large part to an algorithm developed by a UCLA postdoctoral scholar.

Exoplanets

New Deep Learning Method Adds 301 Planets to Kepler's Total Count

Scientists have added a whopping 301 newly confirmed exoplanets to the total exoplanet tally.

Exoplanets

Circumbinary Planet Discovered by TESS Validates New Detection Technique

A new technique developed in part by Planetary Science Institute Senior Scientist Nader Haghighipour has allowed astronomers to quickly detect a transiting circumbinary planet orbiting around two suns, according to a new Astronomical Journal paper on which Haghighipour is an author.

Exoplanets

Infant Planet Discovered By UH-Led Team Using Maunakea Telescopes

One of the youngest planets ever found around a distant infant star has been discovered by an international team of scientists led by University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa faculty, students, and alumni.

Exoplanets

The Planet Does Not Fall Far From The Star

A compositional link between planets and their respective host star has long been assumed in astronomy.

Exoplanets

Extreme Exoplanet Even More Exotic Than Originally Thought

Considered an ultra-hot Jupiter - a place where iron gets vaporized, condenses on the night side and then falls from the sky like rain - the fiery, inferno-like WASP-76b exoplanet may be even more sizzling than scientists had realized.