Exoplanet Discoveries

News & Articles

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.

Article2 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.

Article3 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…

Article4 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.

Article5 months ago

Scorching, Seven-Planet System Revealed by New Kepler Exoplanet List

3 min read

A system of seven sweltering planets has been revealed by continued study of data from NASA’s retired Kepler space telescope:…

Article6 months ago
An illustration shows a large, gaseous planet on the lower left, its large bright planet orbiting amid rocky debris. The exoplanet 8 Ursae Minoris b – also known as "Halla" – is shown amid the field of debris after a violent merger of two stars. The planet might have survived the merger, but also might be an entirely new planet formed from the debris. Image credit: W. M. Keck

Discovery Alert: The Planet that Shouldn’t Be There

3 min read

A large, gaseous exoplanet orbits a red giant star that should have destroyed it. It's 530 light-years from Earth.

Article7 months ago
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