• New Earth-like exoplanet discovered, only 39 light years away

    Scientists have discovered a new exoplanet in our stellar neighborhood, only 39 light years from Earth, Massachusetts Institute of Technology announced on November 11, 2015. The planet shows no signs of being capable of hosting any life, however it is the closest…

  • Gemini discovers a young, Jupiter-like planet

    Astronomers have imaged a new world of a young Jupiter in unprecedented details, using the Gemini Observatory's new Planet Imager (GPI). They discovered the planet's mass is about twice the Jupiter's, and it seems the planet is the most Solar System-like pla

  • Smallest exoplanet found to have water vapour

    The smallest exoplanet (about the size of Neptune) HAT-P-11b have been discovered to have clear skies and steamy water vapors as observed by astronomers using data from three of NASA's space telescopes – Hubble, Spitzer and Kepler.John Grunsfeld, assistant administr

  • UEA research shows oceans vital for possibility of alien life

    Researchers at the University of East Anglia have made an important step in the race to discover whether other planets could develop and sustain life. Their new research, published yesterday in the journal Astrobiology, shows the vital role of oceans in m

  • Astronomers find a new type of planet: the “mega-Earth”

    Astronomers announced today that they have discovered a new type of planet – a rocky world weighing 17 times as much as Earth. Theorists believed such a world couldn't form because anything so hefty would grab hydrogen gas as it grew and become a Jupiter-like gas gi

  • Diamond planets more common than thought

    Carbon-rich planets may be more common than previously thought, according to a new research by Yale University astronomers.Some of these planets, all located far beyond Earth's solar system, could contain vast deposits of graphite or diamonds, and their apparent abu

  • First map of clouds on an exoplanet

    On the exoplanet Kepler 7b, the weather is highly predictable, an international team of scientists has found: On any given day, the exoplanet, which orbits a star nearly 1,000 light-years from Earth, is heavily overcast on one side, while the other side likely enjoys

  • Where it rains glass – Hubble finds a bizarre blue exoplanet

    Astronomers at NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have, for the first time, identified a true color of planed out of our Solar System. The planet is 63 light-years away and is boringly named HD 189733b but it is rather interesting, bizarre and exotic. It is also