WASP – Astronomy Now

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.

Smallest-ever star discovered by astronomers

12 July 2017 Astronomy Now

The smallest star yet measured has been discovered by a team of astronomers led by the University of Cambridge. With a size just a sliver larger than that of Saturn, the gravitational pull at its stellar surface is about 300 times stronger than what humans feel on Earth.

UK work-experience schoolboy discovers a new planet

10 June 2015 Astronomy Now

Tom Wagg, now aged 17, discovered a new planet orbiting a star 1000 light-years away in the constellation of Hydra. He was doing work-experience at Keele University two years ago when he spotted the body by finding a tiny dip in the light of its parent star as the planet passed in front of it.