Exoplanet Discoveries

News & Articles

Space scene of a thin atmosphere version of Gliese 12 b

NASA’s TESS Finds Intriguing World Sized Between Earth, Venus

5 min read

Using observations by NASA’s TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) and many other facilities, two international teams of astronomers have discovered…

Article1 month ago
Illustration of a rocky exoplanet and its star. The star is in the background at the lower left and appears somewhat, but not significantly, smaller in the sky than the planet. It has a bright orange-red glow, and appears to have an active surface. The planet is in the foreground to the upper right of the star. The left quarter of the planet (the side facing the star) is lit, while the rest is in shadow. The planet has hints of a rocky, partly molten surface beneath the haze of a thin atmosphere. The boundary between the day and night sides of the planet is fuzzy.

NASA’s Webb Hints at Possible Atmosphere Surrounding Rocky Exoplanet

7 min read

Researchers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope may have detected atmospheric gases surrounding 55 Cancri e, a hot rocky exoplanet…

Article2 months ago
Illustration shows the upper two-thirds of a gas-giant planet, TOI-4600 c, that is similar to Saturn (minus the rings). Cloud bands alternate between light tan, yellow, and darker yellow verging on green.

Discovery Alert: a Long Year for a ‘Cold Saturn’

3 min read

Two recently discovered exoplanets, gas giants possibly similar to Saturn, could be candidates for further atmospheric investigation.

Article4 months ago
A dull, orange-red background dotted with tiny white spots includes a small, bright yellow circle, a star, in the bottom left corner. In the center and center-right of the image, a large, doughnut-shaped, puffy cloud that has splotches of bright and dull orange-red, with a bright yellow-orange center. In front of the right side of this cloud is a red rock, a leftover planet core, that has bright red lines stemming from it. All across the image are small, dark greyish rocks.

Discovery Alert: Glowing Cloud Points to a Cosmic Collision

3 min read

Scientists find that a glowing cloud that obscured a star was caused by a cataclysmic collision of two giant exoplanets.

Article4 months ago
An artist's concept illustration shows a planet large in the frame and back-lit by a nearby bright yellow star. Another planet in the system can be seen as a black dot crossing the face of the star against the background of space.

Discovery Alert: Earth-sized Planet Has a ‘Lava Hemisphere’

4 min read

In a system with two known planets, astronomers spotted something new: a small object transiting across the Sun-sized star. This…

Article6 months ago
An exoplanet is seen as a tiny dotof light blue light next to a str that has been masked with a screen. Protruding from both sides are bright, yellow-orange jets. Those indicate the disk of debris.

Seeing and Believing: 15 Years of Exoplanet Images

5 min read

Fifteen years ago, astronomers delivered what is now an iconic direct image of an exoplanet, Beta Pictoris b.

Article7 months ago

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