Astronomers studying the hottest exoplanet discovered to date have detected multiple elements in its super-heated atmosphere, including iron and titanium.
NASA’s planet-hunting TESS spacecraft has found its first Earth-size planet orbiting a star 53 light years away, along with a larger sub-Neptune sibling.
Using adaptive optics and a high-resolution spectrograph, astronomers have confirmed the presence of water in the atmosphere of a planet 130 light years away.
The European Space Agency says the CHEOPS satellite will launch in October 2019 to learn more about how planets in the Earth-to-Neptune size range form and evolve.
New research indicates most, if not all, of the worlds orbiting the M dwarf TRAPPIST-1 lost whatever water they might have had early in the star’s history due to intense ultraviolet radiation.
Flight controllers sent a final set of commands to the exoplanet-hunting Kepler spacecraft, shutting the spacecraft down after it finally ran out of propellant, ending a spectacular mission.