• New method of finding planets scores its first discovery

    A team at Tel Aviv University and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) has just discovered an exoplanet using a new method that relies on Einstein's special theory of relativity.

    Detecting alien worlds presents a significant challenge since they

  • Sizes of planets and stars

    This few animations show the relative sizes of some planets and stars in our known Universe with VY Canis Majoris as the biggest known

  • First cosmic census estimates there are 50 billion planets in Milky Way

    Scientists have estimated the first cosmic census of planets in our galaxy and the numbers are astronomical – at least 50 billion planets in the Milky Way. And some 500 million of those planets are in what is known as the Goldilocks zone, where the climate is thought