exoplanets – Astronomy Now

Astronomers find possible near-Earth-like planet in archived Kepler data

9 June 2020 Astronomy Now

Researchers find evidence for an intriguing exoplanet in archived Kepler data, a “mirror-image” Earth-like world in the habitable zone of a Sun-like star.

Now you see it, now you don’t: The case of the vanishing exoplanet

21 April 2020 Astronomy Now

A presumed exoplanet orbiting the star Fomalhaut now appears to have been a dissipating cloud of debris in the aftermath of a collision between two asteroids.

Earth-size habitable-zone planet found in archived Kepler data

19 April 2020 Astronomy Now

Researchers taking a second look at archived Kepler data find a mislabled Earth-size exoplanet in a red dwarf’s habitable zone.

Using Earth templates to hunt for life-supporting exoplanets

29 March 2020 Astronomy Now

Astronomers have put together spectral templates of Earth at key points in its evolution to help next-generation telescopes identify similar exoplanets.

Forecast for extreme exoplanet: windy and hot, with a chance of iron

16 March 2020 Astronomy Now

Iron vapour in the atmosphere of a particularly hellish exoplanet condenses on the somewhat cooler night side and falls as a rain of iron droplets.

Tell-tale signatures of aurorae new tool in hunt for exoplanets

20 February 2020 Astronomy Now

Astronomers detect auroral interactions between a red dwarf and an unseen exoplanet, providing a new tool for studying exoplanet habitability.

Hottest known exoplanet’s dayside atmosphere a toasty 4,300 C

27 January 2020 Astronomy Now

Temperatures in the dayside atmosphere of the hottest known exoplanet reach a record 4,300 C, hotter than the surfaces of some stars.

TESS finds its first Earth-size planet in host sun’s habitable zone

7 January 2020 Astronomy Now

NASA exoplanet-hunting TESS satellite has found its first habitable-zone Earth-size planet and another orbiting an eclipsing binary system.

Cotton-candy worlds may be steps on planetary evolution ladder

26 December 2019 Astronomy Now

The three lowest-density exoplanets yet discovered may be steps on the planetary evolution ladder, shrinking to resemble more commonplace worlds over time.

CHEOPS launched on follow-up exoplanet research mission

24 December 2019 Stephen Clark

The European Space Agency’s CHEOPs satellite is now in space for an ambitious mission to study already-discovered exoplanets in more detail.