During its four-year mission, NASA’s Kepler space telescope discovered thousands of “planetary candidates” in our Milky Way galaxy — the vast majority of which are almost certainly actual planets. But […]
exoplanet
Posted inAtmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Press Release
Newfound Planet Is Earth-mass But Gassy
An international team of astronomers has discovered the first Earth-mass planet that transits, or crosses in front of, its host star. KOI-314c is the lightest planet to have both its […]
Posted inBiosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets
Probing Exo-Earth's Atmospheres During Primary Eclipse Observations
Most models used to predict or fit exoplanet transmission spectra do not include all the effects of atmospheric refraction. Namely, the angular size of the star with respect to the […]
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Press Release
New Technique Measures Mass and Possible Habitability of Exoplanets
To date, scientists have confirmed the existence of more than 900 exoplanets circulating outside our solar system. To determine if any of these far-off worlds are habitable requires knowing an […]
Posted inAstrochemistry, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets
Electrostatic Activation of Prebiotic Chemistry in Substellar Atmospheres
Charged dust grains in the atmospheres of exoplanets may play a key role in the formation of prebiotic molecules, necessary to the origin of life. Dust grains submerged in an […]
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets
New Theoretical Models Aid the Search for Earth-like Planets
Researchers from Bern have developed a method to simplify the search for Earth-like planets: By using new theoretical models they rule out the possibility of Earth-like conditions, and therefore life, […]
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones
Runaway Greenhouse Effect on Exomoons Due to Irradiation From Hot, Young Giant Planets
The Kepler space telescope has detected transits of objects as small as the Earth’s Moon, and moons as small as 0.2 Earth masses can be detected in the Kepler data […]
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets
Scientists Discover the First Earth-Sized Rocky Planet
Astronomers have discovered the first Earth-sized planet outside the solar system that has a rocky composition like that of Earth. Kepler-78b whizzes around its host star every 8.5 hours, making […]
Posted inAstrochemistry, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets
Diagnosing Chemical Disequilibrium in Planetary Atmospheres
Chemical disequilibrium has recently become a relevant topic in the study of the atmospheres of of transiting extrasolar planets, brown dwarfs, and directly imaged exoplanets. We present a new way […]
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets
Circumbinary Planet Formation in the Kepler-16 System
Recent simulations have shown that the formation of planets in circumbinary configurations (such as those recently discovered by Kepler) is dramatically hindered at the planetesimal accretion stage. The combined action […]