exoplanets – Astronomy Now

Radioactive elements may be key to exoplanet habitability

22 November 2020 Astronomy Now

The amount of radioactive elements in the core of a rocky exoplanet may be a critical factor in determining its habitability.

Researchers find exoplanet with pi-like 3.14-day orbit

22 September 2020 Astronomy Now

Researchers digging through Kepler Space Telescope data found an exoplanet with a pi-like 3.14-day orbit around a cool , low-mass star.

Hubble tests techniques for finding biosignatures in exoplanet atmospheres

7 August 2020 Astronomy Now

Hubble uses sunlight reflected from the moon during an eclipse to detect ozone in Earth’s atmosphere, testing methods needed to assess exoplanet atmospheres.

Radio astronomers measure star’s wobble, find Saturn-size exoplanet

4 August 2020 Astronomy Now

Radio telescope finds Saturn-class exoplanet orbiting nearby dwarf star after measuring slight changes in the star’s position.

VLT captures view of two large exoplanets orbiting young Sun-like star

22 July 2020 Astronomy Now

ESO’s Very Large Telescope has captured the first ever view of two giant exoplanets orbiting a young Sun-like star 300 light years from Earth.

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.