As many as 200 worlds beyond our solar system discovered by astronomers may be larger than estimated, which could influence the search for extraterrestrial life. That’s the theory of a team of researchers who looked at hundreds of extrasolar planets, or exoplanets, observed by NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). TESS hunts exoplanets by catching … Read more
Astronomers have captured the first evidence of a “planet with a death wish” — an alien world that’s orbiting so close to its star and so fast that it’s causing the star to cook it to death with stellar explosions. The planet, called HIP 67522 b, is a wispy, Jupiter-size planet bound on a tight, … Read more
The Big Bang is often described as the explosive birth of the universe — a singular moment when space, time and matter sprang into existence. But what if this was not the beginning at all? What if our universe emerged from something else — something more familiar and radical at the same time? In a … Read more
E.T., Stitch, Chewbacca, Groot — humans have a lot of ideas about what aliens might look like. But what is the science behind extraterrestrial life? Is it possible that humans will ever experience “first contact” with an alien species? Many scientists hope so. They’re looking for extraterrestrial life on planets with conditions that look like … Read more
The Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), currently under construction in northern Chile, will give us a better view of the Milky Way than any ground-based telescope before it. It’s difficult to overstate how transformative it will be. The ELT’s primary mirror array will have an effective diameter of 39 meters. It will gather more light than … Read more
A quartet of Earth-like worlds, each about 20% to 30% the size of our planet, circle one of our closest stellar neighbors, a new study reveals. The rocky alien worlds are close enough that future generations of humans may be able to visit them with futuristic rocket propulsion technology. However, it is unlikely that we … Read more
A planet-size object that possibly once visited the solar system may have permanently changed our cosmic neighborhood by warping the orbits of the four outer planets, a new study suggests. The findings may shed light on why these planets’ paths have certain peculiar features. For decades, astronomers have debated how the solar system’s planets formed. … Read more
On Earth, you can look up at night and see the Moon shining bright from hundreds of thousands of miles away. But if you went to Venus, that wouldn’t be the case. Not every planet has a moon — so why do some planets have several moons, while others have none? I’m a physics instructor … Read more
Far beyond the eight familiar planets in our solar system, countless bizarre and extreme worlds await discovery — and some have already been found. Thanks to rapidly advancing telescope technology, astronomers have detected more than 5,600 planets outside our solar system. These exoplanets, as scientists call them, are worlds of lava, and worlds of water. They’re worlds … Read more
We have some incredibly powerful telescopes that have given us spectacular views of the cosmos and allowed us to look back to the early days of the universe. These observatories, such as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), are amazing feats of engineering that have required billions of dollars and decades of work. But what … Read more
