Exoplanets

Exoplanets are planets that exist outside our solar system. The first discovery of a confirmed exoplanet was in 1992, but now astronomers know of more than 5,000 exoplanets.

Exoplanets, Science

Hubble finds signature of water vapor in exoplanet GJ 9827d’s atmosphere

$Around a star in our Milky Way galaxy, astronomers have discovered an extremely low-density planet that is as light as cotton candy. The new planet, named WASP-193b, appears to dwarf Jupiter in size, yet it is a fraction of its density. Credit: K. Ivanov/MIT.$

Exoplanets, Science

‘This planet should not be there.’ Second lightest exoplanet known to date surprises astronomers

An artistic conception of Gliese 12 b, shows the exoplanet in the foreground at right while the red dwarf star glows brightly in the distance at left.

Exoplanets, Science

Astronomers discover Gliese 12 b, a potentially habitable exoplanet

Exoplanets, Science

New exoplanet discovered in habitable zone of a multi-star system

An artist’s concept of the exoplanet SPECULOOS-3 b orbiting its red dwarf star. The planet is as big around as Earth, while its star is slightly bigger than Jupiter – but much more massive. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Found: An Earth-sized exoplanet named SPECULOOS-3 b

This artist illustration shows WASP-69b, which sits about 163 light years from Earth, orbiting its host star. Credit: Gabriel Perez Diaz, SMM (IAC).

WASP-69b — and its weird tail — help us understand the cosmos

This is a color illustration of what exoplanet 55 Cancri e might look like. A rocky planet on the left and a portion of a much-larger star on the right. About three-quarters of the lit side of the planet is visible; the other quarter is in shadow. The surface of the planet has gray, orange, and yellow mottling. Most of the orange and yellow is in the region that is facing the star directly. The grayer portions are toward the poles and shadowed side of the planet. The edge of the disc of the planet appears to be glowing, suggesting a thin atmosphere. The star is bright orange-yellow, with a turbulent appearance similar to the Sun."

Exoplanets, Science

At last! JWST finds signs of a thick atmosphere around a rocky exoplanet

This artist’s concept shows what exoplanet K2-18b could look like based on science data. Credit: NASA, CSA, ESA, J. Olmsted (STScI), Science: N. Madhusudhan (Cambridge University).

Alien Life, Exoplanets

Possible hints of life found on exoplanet K2-18b – how excited should we be?

Exoplanets, Planets, Solar System

Solar eclipse glossary

The Orion nebula as seen by the JWST, appears like a pillowy, colorful, massive cloud of gas and dust.

Exoplanets, Stars

JWST spots oceans’ worth of water evaporating from a star’s planet-forming disk

Is Earth the only Goldilocks planet?

An illustration of Exoplanet TOI-715 b

Recently discovered super-Earth might be habitable — and it could have a sibling

Popular Science Topics

The new study suggests that miniture solar systems would not necessarily look like our own. This composite of planets in our solar system was taken by various NASA spacecraft. Included in the image are (from top to bottom) Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Credit: NASA/JPL.

Solar system

Our solar system hosts a plethora of fascinating planets and other objects.

Credit: Marco Lorenzi.

Stars

These giant, glowing balls of gas are vital to the evolution of the cosmos.

Artist’s conception of the Milky Way. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt (SSC-Caltech).

Milky Way

Our home galaxy hosts hundreds of billions of stars orbited by countless worlds.

Located 12 million light-years away, M82 appears high in the northern spring sky in the direction of the constellation Ursa Major, the Great Bear. It is also called the “Cigar Galaxy” because of the elliptical shape produced by the oblique tilt of its starry disk relative to our line of sight. Credit: NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA).

Galaxies

These sprawling star factories are home to millions to trillions of stars.

In this artist’s rendition, the newly discovered planet is shown as a hot, rocky, geologically-active world glowing in the deep red light of its nearby parent star, the M dwarf Gliese 876. Credit: Trent Schindler, National Science Foundation.

Exoplanets

Our cosmos is filled with countless bizarre worlds around other stars.

An artist’s imagination of hydrocarbon pools, icy and rocky terrain on the surface of Saturn’s largest moon. Credit: Steven Hobbs (Brisbane, Queensland, Australia).

Alien life

Only one planet we know of hosts life. But the hunt for extraterrestrial life is on.

This artist’s conception illustrates one of the most primitive supermassive black holes known (central black dot) at the core of a young, star-rich galaxy. Astronomers using NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope have uncovered two of these early objects, dating back to about 13 billion years ago. The monstrous black holes are among the most distant known, and appear to be in the very earliest stages of formation, earlier than any observed so far. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

Exotic objects

The universe is filled with extreme objects, from black holes to pulsars and more.

Based on the study, astronomers have updated the timeline of the universe to reflect when the first stars are now thought to have appeared, some 180 million years after the Big Bang. Credit: N. R. Fuller/National Science Foundation.

Cosmology

The origin, evolution, and fate of the universe is shrouded in mystery.

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