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.
A global team of astronomers, led by the University of Warwick, have used a European Space Agency (ESA) telescope to discover a planetary system that turns our understanding of planet formation upside down, with a distant ...
Planetary Sciences
Feb 12, 2026
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For life to develop on a planet, certain chemical elements are needed in sufficient quantities. Phosphorus and nitrogen are essential. Phosphorus is vital for the formation of DNA and RNA, which store and transmit genetic ...
Astrobiology
Feb 9, 2026
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147
Using HARPS and HARPS-N spectrographs, astronomers have observed a nearby K-type star designated HD 176986, known to host two super-Earth exoplanets. The observations resulted in the discovery of another planet in the system ...
Gas giants are large planets mostly composed of helium and/or hydrogen. Although these planets have dense cores, they don't have hard surfaces. Jupiter and Saturn are the gas giants in our solar system, but there are many ...
Astronomy
Feb 9, 2026
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111
Aging stars can completely destroy their planets. When a star reaches the end of its life on the main sequence, it goes through dramatic changes. And those changes don't just dictate the star's fate; they can also dictate ...
Astronomy
Feb 4, 2026
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Europe's ESO star-gazing organization on Monday welcomed plans to call off building a massive green energy project in the Chilean desert which threatened to spoil its telescopes' view of the darkest skies on Earth.
Astronomy
Feb 2, 2026
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Using NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), an international team of astronomers has discovered a new extrasolar planet transiting a distant star. The newfound alien world, designated TOI-6692 b, is the size ...
Astronomers have found thousands of exoplanets around single stars, but few around binary stars—even though both types of stars are equally common. Physicists can now explain the dearth.
Astronomy
Jan 30, 2026
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Dr. Leonardos Gkouvelis, researcher at LMU's University Observatory Munich and member of the ORIGINS Excellence Cluster, has solved a fundamental mathematical problem that had obstructed the interpretation of exoplanet atmospheres ...
Astronomy
Jan 30, 2026
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65
An international team including Cornell researcher Jake Turner has developed a novel analysis method capable of uncovering previously undetectable stellar and exoplanetary signals hidden within archival radio-astronomical ...
Astronomy
Jan 28, 2026
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