What are extrasolar planets?

For countless generations, human beings have looked out at the night sky and wondered if they were alone in the universe. With the discovery of other planets in our solar system, the true extent of the Milky Way galaxy, and ...

Circular orbits for small extrasolar planets

Orbits of 74 small extrasolar planets are found to be close to circular, in contrast to previous measurements of massive exoplanets. The results, to be published in the Astrophysical Journal are obtained by the SAC researchers ...

Kepler's six years in science (and counting)

NASA's Kepler spacecraft began hunting for planets outside our solar system on May 12, 2009. From the trove of data collected, we have learned that planets are common, that most sun-like stars have at least one planet and ...

Ancient star raises prospects of intelligent life

Can life survive for billions of years longer than the expected timeline on Earth? As scientists discover older and older solar systems, it's likely that before long we'll find an ancient planet in a habitable zone. Knowing ...

Tau Ceti: The next Earth? Probably not

As the search continues for Earth-size planets orbiting at just the right distance from their star, a region termed the habitable zone, the number of potentially life-supporting planets grows. In two decades we have progressed ...

'Venus zone' narrows search for habitable planets

Long before the hunt began to find Earth lookalikes around other stars, one planet in the Solar System had already been named Earth's twin. With its similar size and mass, Venus measures very close to Earth, with one major ...

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