The LIFE telescope passed its first test, detecting biosignatures on Earth

The vast majority of exoplanets are uninhabitable. For the few that may be habitable, we can only determine if they are by examining their atmospheres. LIFE, the Large Interferometer for Exoplanets, can help.

Two Apparent Alien Worlds Still Circling The Bodies of Their Dead Stars

If confirmed, these would be the first directly-imaged planets that are similar to the giant planets in our own Solar System, and they would demonstrate that widely separated giant planets like Jupiter survive stellar evolution.

Discovery Alert: A 'Super-Earth' in the Habitable Zone

 A “super-Earth” ripe for further investigation orbits a small, reddish star that is, by astronomical standards, fairly close to us – only 137 light-years away. 

Exoplanet with a tail: a hot Jupiter looks like a giant comet

We don’t usually think of planets as having tails, like comets, but sometimes they do. One giant hot Jupiter exoplanet WASP-69b has a tail of gas much longer than previously estimated.

NASA's Hubble Finds Water Vapor in Small Exoplanet's Atmosphere

Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope observed the smallest exoplanet where water vapor has been detected in the atmosphere.

Astronomers Find a Planet Half-Covered in Lava

Using the TESS space telescope, astronomers detected an exoplanet with a perpetual lava hemisphere.

Young Star Beta Pictoris Has a Surprising Second Disk

Beta Pictoris has been revealed by many telescopes, even Hubble, to be home to the most amazing disk. Over the years the second disc was revealed.

Astronomers make rare exoplanet discovery

Astronomers have made the rare discovery of a small, cold exoplanet and its massive outer companion -- shedding light on the formation of planets like Earth.

Astronomers Discover Unexpected Structures In Youngest Planetary Disks

How long does planet formation take? Maybe not as long as we thought, according to new research.

Eyeball Planets May Actually Exist

Yep - planetary scientists think there might be a type of exoplanet out there that looks disturbingly like a giant eyeball. Staring. But it's actually not as weird as it sounds - the appearance of these bodies has to do with tidal locking.

Entropy Could Be The Secret to Alien Worlds Being Habitable

Scientist Luigi Petraccone, University of Naples in Italy, in his paper that examines something called "planetary entropy production" lookes at how scientists select planets that could be habitable. 

Exoplanet LHS 3154 b seems way too big for its tiny star

The nearly Neptune-sized planet LHS 3154 b orbits close to a very small star and challenges theories of how planets form.

Synchronized Dance of a 6-Planet System

Six planets orbit their central star in a rhythmic beat, a rare case of an “in sync” gravitational lockstep that could offer deep insight into planet formation and evolution.

JWST detects methane in atmosphere of blistering hot WASP-80 b

Finding methane in the atmosphere of WASP-80 b provides a good roadmap for how to do it for planets more conducive to life.

Webb details WASP-107b, the weird exoplanet where it rains sand

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) recently looked at WASP-107b, a puffy, strange, hot planet about 200 light-years from Earth.