Exoplanet systems as a research area investigate the formation, architecture, dynamics, and physical properties of planetary systems orbiting stars other than the Sun, integrating observational, theoretical, and computational approaches. The field encompasses detection techniques (e.g., transits, radial velocities, direct imaging, microlensing), characterization of planetary masses, radii, atmospheres, and orbits, and statistical studies of population demographics as functions of stellar type, metallicity, and environment. It also addresses disk–planet interactions, migration processes, multi-planet dynamics, and stability, with implications for planet formation theories, comparative planetology, and the occurrence and potential habitability of terrestrial and giant planets in diverse stellar contexts.
When the JWST finally began its long-awaited science operations in July 2022, there was a long list of targets awaiting its attention. Scientists compete for observing time by submitting proposals, and for every nine submitted ...
Astronomy
Sep 14, 2025
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TRAPPIST-1 is a red dwarf star located about 40 light years away that hosts seven Earth-sized rocky planets, with at least three orbiting in the habitable zone where liquid water could potentially exist. This makes it one ...
Astrobiology
Sep 11, 2025
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The earliest images of 3I/ATLAS, newly uncovered by Michigan State University, reveal how the interstellar object evolved as it traveled through our solar system—and how other distant solar systems might be different from ...
Astronomy
Sep 11, 2025
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532
As atmospheric observations of exoplanets become increasingly precise, it is more important than ever to correctly account for the effect of starspots on host stars. An ideal opportunity to study starspots arises when a transiting ...
Astronomy
Sep 11, 2025
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78
Science advances through data that don't fit our current understanding. At least that was Thomas Kuhn's theory in his famous On the Structure of Scientific Revolutions. So scientists should welcome new data that challenges ...
Planetary Sciences
Sep 11, 2025
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176
Using radial velocity measurements, an international team of astronomers has identified a second planet orbiting a nearby M-dwarf star known as Gliese 536. The newfound alien world turns out to be at least a few times more ...
Over the course of more than two decades, researchers at the University of Bern have developed the so-called "Bern model," a suite of computer programs that can numerically simulate the formation of planetary systems, thus ...
Planetary Sciences
Sep 9, 2025
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52
New research using NASA's powerful JWST telescope has identified a planet 41 light years away which may have an atmosphere. The planet is within the "habitable zone," the region around a star where temperatures make it possible ...
Astronomy
Sep 9, 2025
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127
University of Bristol astrophysicists are helping shed new light on an Earth-sized exoplanet 40 light years away where liquid water in the form of a global ocean or icy expanse might exist on its surface. That would only ...
Astronomy
Sep 8, 2025
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132
Since the first discovery of planets beyond the solar system in 1995, more than 6,000 exoplanets have been identified. Many of these planets have properties that differ significantly from the eight planets in our solar system. ...
Astronomy
Sep 5, 2025
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