Many people feel that it’s very important for humanity’s long term survival that we become a multiplanet species. But what about traveling to exoplanets? Can we reach the stars?
A massive, Jupiter-sized exoplanet has been discovered orbiting a small, low-mass star and this discovery is challenging theories on how planets form around their stars. This is unusual because planets this large are not supposed to form around low-mass stars.
Our galaxy likely holds hundreds of billions of planets around other stars but when and how did we begin finding them? What was the first exoplanet detected? It turns out that the first discovery wasn’t one, but two planets in the same system.
WASP-39 b is a hot and puffy planet with a mass roughly one-quarter that of Jupiter and a diameter 1.3 times greater than Jupiter
In a new study published in the Astronomical Journal, researchers used the known population of exoplanets to set better thresholds for planetary effects on signals from ETIs (extraterrestrial intelligences). More at #365DaysOfAstro
Astronomers have found evidence of a possible planet outside of our Milky Way galaxy. If confirmed, this is the first time that a planet has been detected in another galaxy. It is located in the spiral galaxy Messier 51, also called the Whirlpool Galaxy.
The James Webb Space Telescope has detected its first exoplanet. Its name is LHS 475b, and astronomers believe it is remarkably similar to our own home planet.
Wherever we find liquid water on Earth, we find life, so it makes sense to search for water across the Universe. But what about worlds which are completely covered in water, oceans hundreds of kilometers deep. Can there be too much water?
Time to dive into planetary formation and all the ways scientists have tried to explain stellar systems. Enjoy!
Astronomers have found a planet around a red giant star that should have been destroyed, yet it still exists, leaving astronomers to wonder why the planet is still there. So what’s the puzzle?