Collaborate Disseminate
It’s almost a certainty that we’re not alone in the universe, but so far direct evidence has eluded us. While we have some idea about what kinds of signs to look for on other planets, many of these can also be created under natural processes…. Continue reading New NASA mission launch aims to reduce false-positives in search for life
Between exoplanets with ruby clouds and those that are actually just giant diamonds, science fiction has barely prepared us for just how weird alien worlds could be. Now, thanks to new Hubble observations we have another contender in WASP-121b, a planet that’s so intensely hot it’s vaporizing heavy metals and venting them into space. As if that wasn’t enough, the poor planet is also being stretched into an egg shape thanks to the strong gravity of its host star.
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Continue Reading Hubble reveals egg-shaped exoplanet so hot it’s venting vaporized iron into space
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Continue reading Hubble reveals egg-shaped exoplanet so hot it's venting vaporized iron into space
NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission has been very busy lately. Back in April, the satellite discovered its first Earth-sized planet, in early July it found three more in one system, and just this week another system of… Continue reading TESS spots closest super-Earth that could be habitable
When looking for other planets that could be hosting life, astronomers tend to focus on those that are very Earth-like. But doing so might be limiting our scope too much and underselling life’s hardiness. A new study has used simulations to s… Continue reading Snowball planets may still have habitable hotspots
NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has discovered a set of three worlds orbiting a peaceful star located a mere 73 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Pictor. The exoplanets, which are among the smallest and closes… Continue reading Exoplanet-hunting telescope discovers three new alien worlds with big scientific potential
NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is halfway through its two-year primary mission and has completed its survey of the southern sky in its search for extrasolar planets. According to the space agency, the unmanned telescope h… Continue reading TESS completes survey of southern sky, marking halfway mark of mission
Hurricanes and water go hand in hand – they form over oceans, use warm moist air as an energy source, and are known to dump huge amounts of rain onto areas in their path. But researchers from Purdue University and MIT have now made a surprisi… Continue reading Alien hurricanes could rage on other planets under conditions completely different to Earth
You know what planets are. You’re familiar with moons. But what do you get when you cross the two? “Ploonets,” according to astronomers from Australia and Colombia. These weird, hypothetical objects start life as a moon circling a giant plane… Continue reading Hypothetical "ploonets" would blur the lines between planets and moons
A few years ago, astronomers noticed a star that was dimming in a strange pattern, leading to speculation that an “alien megastructure” might be orbiting it. More plausible explanations were later put forward, with the most likely culprit being a cluster of comets. But now scientists have discovered an even weirder star system that appears to be dimming completely at random, and none of the usual explanations seem to fit.
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Continue Reading Randomly dimming star can’t be explained by usual theories
Category: Space
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Continue reading Randomly dimming star can't be explained by usual theories
So far we’ve spotted more than 4,000 planets orbiting stars other than our Sun, but we know very little about their atmospheres. Now, NASA astronomers have managed to probe the atmosphere of GJ 3470 b, a planet unlike any in our solar system…. Continue reading Astronomers analyze atmosphere of exoplanet unlike any in our solar system