The exoplanet census now stands at 5,599 confirmed discoveries in 4,163 star systems, with another 10,157 candidates awaiting confirmation. So far, the vast majority of these have been detected using indirect methods, including ...
Astronomy
Mar 19, 2024
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68
When we look out to the stars, it is typically not a yearning for the distant depths of outer space that drives us. When we are looking out there, we are truly looking back at ourselves. We try to understand our place in ...
Planetary Sciences
Mar 16, 2024
1
34
In 2008, astronomers with the SuperWASP survey spotted WASP-12b as it transited in front of its star. At the time, it was part of a new class of exoplanets ("hot Jupiters") discovered a little more than a decade before. However, ...
Planetary Sciences
Mar 11, 2024
0
53
How do planetary systems such as the solar system form? To find out, CNRS scientists taking part in an international research team studied a stellar nursery, the Orion Nebula, using the James Webb Space Telescope. By observing ...
Planetary Sciences
Feb 29, 2024
0
120
Star Wars protagonist Luke Skywalker's childhood might have been slightly less harsh if he'd grown up on a more temperate Tatooine—like the ones identified in a new study.
Astronomy
Feb 22, 2024
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19
A new planet starts its life in a rotating circle of gas and dust, a cradle known as a protostellar disk. My colleagues and I have used computer simulations to show that newborn gas planets in these disks are likely to have ...
Astronomy
Feb 17, 2024
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41
For the first time since 1972, NASA is putting science experiments on the moon in 2024. And thanks to new technologies and public-private partnerships, these projects will open up new realms of scientific possibility. As ...
Space Exploration
Feb 9, 2024
1
30
Ordinarily, planets in evolved planetary systems, such as the solar system, follow stable orbits around their central star. However, many indications suggest that some planets might depart from their birthplaces during their ...
Planetary Sciences
Feb 9, 2024
0
972
Trappist-1 is a fascinating exoplanetary system. Seven worlds orbiting a red dwarf star just 40 light-years away. All of the worlds are similar to Earth in mass and size, and three or four of them are potentially habitable. ...
Astrobiology
Feb 5, 2024
1
61
The science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke selected his own seven wonders of the world in a BBC television series in 1997. The only astronomical object he included was SS 433. It had attracted attention already in the late ...
Astronomy
Jan 25, 2024
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