Astronomers have uncovered a new exoplanet that’s slowly breaking apart. Located 140 light-years away, this Mercury-sized planet is losing material at an alarming rate, creating a massive trail of vaporized minerals as it orbits its star. This discovery gives scientists a rare chance to study how intense heat and gravity affect a planet’s fate.
Researchers using the James Webb Space Telescope have detected molecules in the atmosphere of exoplanet K2-18b that may indicate potential biological activity. The analysis revealed the presence of dimethyl sulfide and dimethyl disulfide—compounds that, on Earth, are primarily produced by biological processes.
Astronomers have detected the fastest atmospheric jet stream ever recorded, with winds reaching 33 000 km/h (20 505 mph), on the gas giant exoplanet WASP-127b, located over 500 light-years from Earth.
Astronomers have discovered a potentially habitable exoplanet and its star– both with striking similarities to the Earth and our Sun. The exoplanet candidate called KOI-456.04, which is about 1.9 times the size of ours, is at the right distance from its star, which…
New research using data collected by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) has revealed that a little-known exoplanet called K2-18b could well be a scaled-up version of Earth. Just as exciting, the same researchers also discovered for the first time that the…
A temperate Earth-sized planet has been discovered only 11 light-years from the Solar System by a team using ESO’s unique planet-hunting HARPS instrument. The new world has the designation Ross 128 b and is now the second-closest temperate planet to be…
The newest computer simulation, conducted by researchers from the Lund University in Sweden, suggests the so-called Planet 9 is most likely an exoplanet. If the discovery proves correct, it will make it the first exoplanet revealed inside our home solar system and,…
Kepler mission announced today it has verified 1 284 new planets – the single largest finding of planets to date. "This announcement more than doubles the number of confirmed planets from Kepler and gives us hope that somewhere out there, around a star…
An international team of astronomers, led by the University of Cambridge, used data from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope and obtained the most detailed ‘fingerprint’ of a rocky planet outside our solar system to date. They found a planet of two…
For the first time, astronomers have actually mapped the weather of an exoplanet beyond our Solar System. Astronomers have found that gas giant HD 189733b has winds swirling at 8690 km/h (5400 mph). This is due to the planets extremely close orbit around its host…
