Looking for Earths by looking for Jupiters
In the search for Earth-like planets, it is helpful to look for clues and patterns that can help scientist narrow down the types of systems where potentially habitable planets are likely to be discovered. View More (2012-05-08)
Experients may force revision of astrophysical models of the universe
In a challenge to current astrophysical models of the universe, researchers at Sandia National Laboratories Z machine and the University of Rostock in Germany have found that current estimates of ice-giant planetary interiors overstate water's compressibility by as much as 30 percent. View More (2012-03-20)
University of Hawaii scientists analyze a tiny comet grain to date Jupiter's formation
Particles from comet 81P/Wild 2 brought to Earth in 2006 by NASA's Stardust spacecraft indicate that Jupiter formed more than three million years after the formation of the first solids in our Solar System. View More (2012-03-01)
The helix in new colors
ESO's VISTA telescope, at the Paranal Observatory in Chile, has captured a striking new image of the Helix Nebula. View More (2012-01-20)
Planet population is plentiful
An international team, including three astronomers from the European Southern Observatory (ESO), has used the technique of gravitational microlensing to measure how common planets are in the Milky Way. View More (2012-01-12)
NASA's Voyager spacecraft that toured outer planets nearing solar system edge
In 1977, Jimmy Carter was sworn in as president, Elvis died, Virginia park ranger Roy Sullivan was hit by lightning a record seventh time, and two NASA space probes destined to turn planetary science on its head launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla. View More (2011-12-14)
The Habitable Exoplanets Catalog, a new online database of habitable worlds
Scientists are now starting to identify potential habitable exoplanets after nearly twenty years of the detection of the first planets around other stars. View More (2011-12-05)
Giant planet ejected from the solar system
Just as an expert chess player sacrifices a piece to protect the queen, the solar system may have given up a giant planet and spared the Earth, according to an article recently published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. View More (2011-11-11)
50 new exoplanets discovered by HARPS
The HARPS spectrograph on the 3.6-metre telescope at ESO's La Silla Observatory in Chile is the world's most successful planet finder. View More (2011-09-13)
Invisible world discovered
Usually, running five minutes late is a bad thing since you might lose your dinner reservation or miss out on tickets to the latest show. But when a planet runs five minutes late, astronomers get excited because it suggests that another world is nearby. View More (2011-09-09)
Astronomers discover, image new planet in planetary system very similar to our own
An international team of astronomers has discovered and imaged a fourth giant planet outside our solar system, a discovery that further strengthens the remarkable resemblances between a distant planetary system and our own. View More (2010-12-09)
Super-Earth has an atmosphere, but is it steamy or gassy?
In December 2009, astronomers announced the discovery of a super-Earth known as GJ 1214b. At the time, they reported signs that the newfound world likely had a thick, gaseous atmosphere. View More (2010-12-02)
Planet Neptune not guilty of harassment
New research by a University of Victoria PhD student is challenging popular theory about how part of our solar system formed. At today's meeting of the prestigious Division of Planetary Sciences in Pasadena, California, Alex Parker is presenting evidence that, contrary to popular belief, the planet Neptune can't have knocked a collection of planetoids known as the Cold Classical Kuiper Belt to... View More (2010-10-06)
Asteroid found in gravitational 'dead zone'
There are places in space where the gravitational tug between a planet and the Sun balance out, allowing other smaller bodies to remain stable. These places are called Lagrangian points. View More (2010-08-13)
Pounding particles to create Neptune's water in the lab
We know 'icy' Neptune is partially comprised of water molecules but until now we have had little means to test how water behaves in the extreme conditions that Neptune presents. View More (2010-07-22)
Exoplanet caught on the move
Only 12 million years old, or less than three-thousandths of the age of the Sun, Beta Pictoris is 75% more massive than our parent star. It is located about 60 light-years away towards the constellation of Pictor (the Painter) and is one of the best-known examples of a star surrounded by a dusty debris disc. View More (2010-06-11)
A gassy mystery: Researchers discover surprising exoplanetary atmosphere
A Neptune-sized exoplanet orbiting a small star about 33 light years away could be a key stepping stone on the path to making sense of an Earth twin. View More (2010-04-22)
Triton's Summer Sky of Methane and Carbon Monoxide
According to the first ever infrared analysis of the atmosphere of Neptune's moon Triton, summer is in full swing in its southern hemisphere. View More (2010-04-08)
Diamond is one tough cookie
Most people know that diamond is one of the hardest solids on Earth, so strong that it can easily cut through glass and steel. View More (2010-01-27)
First Earth-like planet spotted outside solar system likely a volcanic wasteland
When scientists confirmed in October that they had detected the first rocky planet outside our solar system, it advanced the longtime quest to find an Earth-like planet hospitable to life. View More (2010-01-06)
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