The next step to understanding exoplanets is to understand their atmospheres better. Astronomers can determine a planet's mass, density, and other physical characteristics fairly routinely. But characterizing their atmospheres ...
Astronomy
Mar 16, 2022
0
35
The first worlds beyond our solar system were discovered three decades ago. Since then, close to 5,000 exoplanets have been confirmed in our galaxy. Astronomers have detected another 5,000 planetary candidates—objects that ...
Astronomy
Mar 15, 2022
0
1058
We do not yet know whether the sun-like stars closest to us, the α Centauri A/B binary, harbor an Earth-like planet. However, thanks to new modeling work, we now have a good sense of what such a planet, should it exist, ...
Space Exploration
Mar 10, 2022
0
113
An astronaut steps into a body scanner and, hours later, walks on Mars in a custom-made spacesuit, breathing oxygen that was extracted from Mars' carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere. On Venus, an inflatable bird-like drone swoops ...
Space Exploration
Feb 28, 2022
0
21
Astronomers have identified two different cases of "mini-Neptune" planets that are losing their puffy atmospheres and likely transforming into super-Earths. Radiation from the planets' stars is stripping away their atmospheres, ...
Astronomy
Feb 3, 2022
5
878
The recently discovered planet TOI-674 b, a bit bigger than Neptune and orbiting a red-dwarf star about 150 light-years away, is a member of an exclusive club: Exoplanets, or planets around other stars, known to have water ...
Astronomy
Jan 14, 2022
0
166
A University of California Riverside (UCR) astronomer and a group of eagle-eyed citizen scientists have discovered a giant gas planet hidden from view by typical stargazing tools.
Astronomy
Jan 13, 2022
1
1054
Exoplanets, planets that orbit stars other than the sun, are found at distances very far from Earth. For example, the closest exoplanet to us, Proxima Centauri b, is 4.2 light years away, or 265,000 times the distance between ...
Astronomy
Jan 7, 2022
2
146
The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, TESS, was launched in 2018 with the goal of discovering small planets around the sun's nearest neighbor stars. TESS has so far discovered 172 confirmed exoplanets and compiled a ...
Astronomy
Jan 3, 2022
1
1020
The James Webb Space Telescope (Webb) is designed to answer fundamental questions about the Universe.
Astronomy
Dec 10, 2021
0
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