Exoplanet discoveries used to be nothing but a dream for scientists, but new telescope technology and more advanced observation techniques have made the task of finding planets outside of our solar system easier than ever. In fact, so many new exoplanets are being found these days that scientists have to pick and choose which ones …
Alpha Centauri is the nearest star system to Earth, and that makes it a prime target for study as well as potential interstellar missions in the future. Scientists believe they’ve spotted a never-before-seen planet orbiting the triple star system. The planet appears to be orbiting Alpha Centauri A, which is a star a lot like …
A team of scientists believes they may have detected radio emission from a distant exoplanet, which would be a first. The planet is roughly 51 light-years away, and while there is still some debate over whether the signal is coming from the planet or the binary star it orbits, the data seems to indicate the …
Astronomers have spotted a distant exoplanet that is so incredibly extreme, life as we know it wouldn’t last there for a second. Temperatures of over 3,000C, oceans of lava, and supersonic winds terrorize the planet’s surface, while the intense heat vaporizes rock that then rains down from above. The planet is tidally locked to its …
Astronomers have spotted an exoplanet orbiting a cool star that completes a year in just 3.14 days. Nicknamed the “Pi Planet” or “Pi Earth,” the roughly Earth-sized world is extremely hot. Its surface temperature is around 350 degrees Fahrenheit… which is a great temperature for baking pie. You don’t have to be a total math …
A tiny exoplanet-hunting satellite called ASTERIA managed to spot a distant world twice the size of Earth. The satellite detected the scorching hot world 55 Cancri e. In the future, microsatellites may play a more important role in planet-hunting. It wasn’t that long ago that astronomers could only dream of having the technological might to …
Exoplanet WASP-79b is a massive gas giant with incredibly hot atmospheric temperatures. Its atmosphere isn’t capable of scattering like in the way that Earth’s atmosphere does, so the daytime skies would look yellow instead of blue. Like other hot Jupiter exoplanets, it’s thought that WASP-19b has iron rain due to its heat. Visit BGR’s homepage …
Exoplanet Fomalhaut b (also known as Dagon) disappeared before astronomers’ eyes after being detected multiple times. A new theory suggests the would-be planet was actually a cloud of debris left over from a collision between two large icy objects. Visit BGR’s homepage for more stories. It wasn’t that long ago that astronomers could only dream …
Detecting the presence of a new exoplanet hundreds of light-years away is always exciting for astronomers, but not all newly-discovered planets are created equal. Some are undeniably more interesting than others, and the planet known as NGTS-10b is most certainly one of the more intriguing worlds scientists have found. The planet isn’t Earth-like or promising …
I don’t know about you, but when I was 17 years old, I wasn’t doing very much planet-hunting. Wolf Cukier of Scarsdale High School is different. Not only was he accepted as an intern at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center after his junior year, but he also managed to make a name for himself just …
