Astronomers puzzled by 'planet that shouldn't exist'

The search for planets outside our solar system—exoplanets—is one of the most rapidly growing fields in astronomy. Over the past few decades, more than 5,000 exoplanets have been detected and astronomers now estimate ...

Astronomers find a planet that shouldn't exist

When our sun reaches the end of its life, it will expand to 100 times its current size, enveloping the Earth. Many planets in other solar systems face a similar doom as their host stars grow old. But not all hope is lost, ...

One in ten stars ate a Jupiter-sized planet, suggests paper

In space, cataclysmic events happen to stars all the time. Some explode as supernovae, some get torn apart by black holes, and some suffer other fates. But when it comes to planets, stars turn the tables. Then it's the stars ...

How did the Butterfly Nebula get its wings? It's complicated

Planetary nebulae form when red giant stars expel their outermost layers as they run out of helium fuel—becoming hot, dense white dwarf stars that are roughly the size of Earth. The material that was shed, enriched in carbon, ...

New Webb image reveals dusty disk like never seen before

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has imaged the inner workings of a dusty disk surrounding a nearby red dwarf star. These observations represent the first time the previously known disk has been imaged at these infrared ...

Astrophysicists hunt for second-closest supermassive black hole

Two astrophysicists at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics have suggested a way to observe what could be the second-closest supermassive black hole to Earth: a behemoth 3 million times the mass of the Sun, hosted ...

Astronomers detect new Jupiter-like exoplanet

Using radial velocity measurements, astronomers from Japan and China have detected a new exoplanet orbiting a G-type giant star. The newfound alien world is similar in mass to Jupiter but much hotter than the solar system's ...

'Marshmallow' world orbiting a cool red dwarf star

A gas giant exoplanet with the density of a marshmallow has been detected in orbit around a cool red dwarf star by a suite of instruments, including the NEID radial-velocity instrument on the WIYN 3.5-meter Telescope at Kitt ...

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