The search for life beyond Earth
Mars may now be considered a barren, icy desert but did Earth's nearest neighbour once harbour life?
Space Exploration
Feb 18, 2021
2
66
News tagged with habitable zones
In search of super-Earths: Spectrograph CRIRES+ at ESO's Very Large Telescope
The astronomy research instrument CRIRES+ is designed to study planets outside our solar system. It is now in operation at the Very Large Telescope (VLT) of the European Southern Observatory (ESO). The Institute of Astrophysics ...
Astronomy
Feb 16, 2021
0
10
A new way to look for life-sustaining planets
It is now possible to capture images of planets that could potentially sustain life around nearby stars, thanks to advances reported by an international team of astronomers in the journal Nature Communications.
Astronomy
Feb 10, 2021
6
275
Puzzling six-exoplanet system with rhythmic movement challenges theories of how planets form
Using a combination of telescopes, including the Very Large Telescope of the European Southern Observatory (ESO's VLT), astronomers have revealed a system consisting of six exoplanets, five of which are locked in a rare rhythm ...
Astronomy
Jan 25, 2021
2
1825
Space weather discovery puts 'habitable planets' at risk
A discovery that links stellar flares with radio-burst signatures will make it easier for astronomers to detect space weather around nearby stars outside the Solar System. Unfortunately, the first weather reports from our ...
Astronomy
Dec 09, 2020
9
289
The solar system follows the galactic standard—but it is a rare breed
Researchers at the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, have investigated more than 1000 planetary systems orbiting stars in our own galaxy, the Milky Way, and have discovered a series of connections between planetary ...
Astronomy
Nov 30, 2020
16
2435
An Earth-like stellar wind for Proxima Centauri c
Proxima Centauri is the closest star to the Sun, and its planet, Proxima Cen b ("Proxima b"), lies in its habitable zone (the distance range within which surface water can be liquid), making the planet a prime target for ...
Astronomy
Nov 30, 2020
0
192
Assessing the habitability of planets around old red dwarfs
A new study using data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and Hubble Space Telescope gives new insight into an important question: how habitable are planets that orbit the most common type of stars in the Galaxy? The target ...
Astronomy
Oct 30, 2020
4
436
The first habitable-zone, Earth-sized planet discovered with exoplanet survey spacecraft
TESS, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, was launched in 2018 with the goal of discovering small planets around the Sun's nearest neighbors, stars bright enough to allow for follow-up characterizations of their planets' ...
Astronomy
Oct 26, 2020
2
695
Some planets may be better for life than Earth
Earth is not necessarily the best planet in the universe. Researchers have identified two dozen planets outside our solar system that may have conditions more suitable for life than our own. Some of these orbit stars that ...
Astronomy
Oct 05, 2020
27
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