NASA's Kepler spacecraft was designed to find exoplanets by looking for stars that dim as a planet crosses the star's face. Fortuitously, the same design makes it ideal for spotting other astronomical transients—objects ...
Astronomy
Jan 24, 2020
0
1396
NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has discovered its first Earth-size planet in its star's habitable zone, the range of distances where conditions may be just right to allow the presence of liquid water ...
Astronomy
Jan 7, 2020
7
2309
"Super-Puffs" may sound like a new breakfast cereal. But it's actually the nickname for a unique and rare class of young exoplanets that have the density of cotton candy. Nothing like them exists in our solar system.
Astronomy
Dec 19, 2019
9
1329
For many years, for all we knew, our solar system was alone in the universe. Then better telescopes began to reveal a treasure trove of planets circling distant stars.
Astronomy
Dec 18, 2019
2
430
Data gathered by NASA's now defunct Kepler telescope provides a solution to an astronomical mystery.
Astronomy
Dec 4, 2019
9
1859
NASA will contribute an instrument to a European space mission that will explore the atmospheres of hundreds of planets orbiting stars beyond our Sun, or exoplanets, for the first time.
Space Exploration
Nov 8, 2019
0
56
Just in time for Halloween, NASA has released two new posters celebrating some truly terrifying exoplanets, or planets outside our solar system. Free to download, the entertaining posters recall vintage horror movie advertisements ...
Space Exploration
Oct 30, 2019
0
76
A balmy Florida evening, and my family and I stood on Cocoa Beach, looking northward toward the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. We were part of a seaside crowd gathered to witness the launch of NASA's Kepler Space Telescope. ...
Astronomy
Oct 22, 2019
1
35
Scientists are one step closer to discovering life on other planets.
Astronomy
Sep 11, 2019
0
86
The Kepler satellite is famous for its discovery of thousands of exoplanets by continuously and meticulously measuring the brightnesses of over half-a-million stars for the signatures of transiting exoplanets. Less well known ...
Astronomy
Sep 4, 2019
0
79
