In the past three decades, almost 4,000 planet-like objects have been discovered orbiting isolated stars outside the solar system (exoplanets). Beginning in 2011, it was possible to use NASA's Kepler Space Telescope to observe ...
Astronomy
Apr 9, 2019
1
1186
Rocky planets orbiting red dwarf stars may be bone dry and lifeless, according to a new study using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. Water and organic compounds, essential for life as we know it, may get blown away before they ...
Astronomy
Jan 8, 2019
2
289
The word "HAZMAT" describes substances that pose a risk to the environment, or even to life itself. Imagine the term being applied to entire planets, where violent flares from the host star may make worlds uninhabitable by ...
Astronomy
Oct 18, 2018
16
153
New observations by two Arizona State University astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have caught a red dwarf star in a violent outburst, or superflare. The blast of radiation was more powerful than any such outburst ...
Astronomy
Oct 18, 2018
2
335
The conditions for life surviving on planets entirely covered in water are more fluid than previously thought, opening up the possibility that water worlds could be habitable, according to a new paper from the University ...
Astronomy
Aug 31, 2018
31
731
A thin gap has been discovered on the Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram (HRD), the most fundamental of all maps in stellar astronomy, a finding that provides new information about the interior structures of low mass stars in the ...
Astronomy
Jul 26, 2018
1
203
Last autumn, the world was excited by the discovery of an exoplanet called Ross 128 b, which is just 11 light years away from Earth. New work from a team led by Diogo Souto of Brazil's Observatório Nacional and including ...
Astronomy
Jul 10, 2018
1
194
The Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) and the University of Oviedo present today the discovery of two new planetary systems, one of them hosting three planets the same size as the Earth.
Astronomy
Jun 8, 2018
10
250
In humanity's search for life outside our Solar System, one of the best places scientists have considered is Alpha Centauri, a system containing the three nearest stars beyond our Sun.
Astronomy
Jun 7, 2018
0
59
Look up at the sky tonight. Every star you see—plus hundreds of thousands, even millions more—will come under the intense stare of NASA's newest planet hunter.
Space Exploration
Apr 12, 2018
0
182
