In a study published in the journal Science Advances, a team of European astronomers shows that water can be delivered to a terrestrial planet in the form of ‘pebble snow’ in the early phases of the planet’s growth. An artist’s impression of a water-world exoplanet. Image credit: Sci-News.com. “All our …
Read More »Trappist 7 Planets
Astronomers are getting very good at hunting for exoplanets with a little help from powerful ground and space-based telescopes. We’re no longer finding one planet here and there — we’re discovering entire solar systems. TRAPPIST-1 has been of particular interest with its system of seven planets, discovered in 2016 …
Read More »Water On All Rocky Planets
Water may emerge in connection with the formation of terrestrial planets, according to a new analysis of a Martian meteorite called North West Africa (NWA) 7533. An artist’s impression of the young Mars. Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO / N. Risinger, skysurvey.org. “There are two hypotheses about the emergence …
Read More »Silica And Diamonds
Extrasolar planets hosted by stars with sufficiently high carbon-to-oxygen ratios could be made of diamonds and silica, according to new research by Arizona State University and the University of Chicago. An artist’s impression of a carbide planet with diamond and silica as main minerals. Image ctredit: Shim / ASU / …
Read More »Machine Learning AI
Spotting exoplanets isn’t as simple as pointing a telescope at the sky and picking out the planet-shaped things. The worlds orbiting distant stars are too dim and tiny for that, but we can detect them with the help of planet-hunting satellites like TESS and the dearly departed Kepler. These …
Read More »Watch The Trailer For Cara Delevingne’s Next Film, Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets
Like every summer there are plenty of blockbuster, popcorn action flicks set to premiere, but one of the most anticipated is director Luc Besson’s latest, Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets. And after yesterday, we finally have a full-length trailer to watch. One of the reason’s Valerian is so …
Read More »Astronomers may have figured out why alien planets lack exomoons
Astronomers have found a great many exoplanets out there among the stars, but one thing they have not found is exomoons. There’s no evidence of moons orbiting any of the planets we’ve found orbiting other stars, and it’s not clear why. Moons are obviously common in our solar system — …
Read More »Gas Giant Planets May Contain Layers of ‘Dark Hydrogen,’ Say Physicists
On the surface of giant gaseous planets, hydrogen is a gas. But between this gaseous layer and the liquid metal hydrogen in the planet’s core lies a layer of dark hydrogen, says a team of physicists led by Dr. Alexander Goncharov from Carnegie Institution of Washington and University of Edinburgh …
Read More »Habitable alien planets may be less common than previously believed
If there’s one modern astronomical concept that has successfully permeated the mainstream media, it’s the “Goldilocks zone.” Not only is it associated with the search for alien life, one of the more popular topics in science, it’s also broadly evocative and easy to understand. To host life, a planet can’t …
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