Believable Extraterrestrials
The 100th anniversary of astronomy’s “Great Debate” prompts thoughts on the hunt for life in the universe
"exoplanet"
Pebbles, Oceans and Wasp Clocks
There are many ways to gauge planetary change
Uninhabitable Planets
Calling a distant world Earth-like is bad practice; calling it habitable is not much better
Banging, Zooming, Ringing and Raining
Explosions on Titan, cometary visitors, a black hole merger and water in an exoplanetary atmosphere
Protocells, Bombardment, Martian Erosion and Biofluorescence
What do these things have in common? They’re all important for astrobiology
The Reciprocal Transit
Look who might be watching
Planets, Moons, Moon–Moons: Why Is This So Hard?
Finding a useful name for astrophysical objects can be a big headache
A Hot Polar Planet
Some exoplanets defy easy explanation, a newly discovered world is no exception
Spacecraft Flies By a Habitable Planet
Echoing a famous experiment, the OSIRIS-REx mission treats Earth as a target of opportunity
The Crazy Scale of Human Carbon Emission
Want some perspective on how much carbon dioxide human activity produces? Here it is
Astrobiology Roundup: Dust Traps, Juno, Mars Lava and more
What's happening in the universe?
Vast Shadow Sweeps Across Young Exoplanetary System
18 years of Hubble Telescope data on a star system reveals a surprising phenomenon spanning tens of billions of miles
An Earth-Like Exoplanet Orbits Our Nearest Neighbor
The red dwarf star Proxima Centauri is home to a newly discovered exoplanet, which may look a lot like Earth. This video was reproduced with permission and was first published on August 24, 2016...
Hot Exoplanet Reveals Its Spin
The Hubble Space Telescope has used direct imaging to detect the spin of a hot, young gas-giant planet—a first for astronomy
Do We Live in a Star Wars Universe?
Tis the season for science fiction fun, but could we even tell if the universe around us was filled with galactic empires and rebel forces?
NASA Goes Big and Bold for Exoplanet Science
A United States federal agency is not necessarily the first place you think of when it comes to answering some of the deepest existential questions for our species...
Will We Find Extraterrestrial Life In 2015?
Probably not, but just possibly yes. One of the reasons that the search for life elsewhere in the universe is so exciting is that it would take only one chance discovery, one lucky break, for all the walls to come tumbling down...
Exoplanet Size: It’s Elementary
Since quite early in the history of the discovery of planets around other stars it’s been apparent that the likelihood of certain types of planets around a star is related to the abundance of heavy elements in that system...
Exoplanet's Rotation Detected for the First Time
A gas giant orbiting a relatively nearby star rotates every eight hours, its spectrum reveals
Exomoons Can Spoof Exoplanet Biosignatures
Astronomers hope that one day soon we’ll obtain a spectrum of light that might tell us whether or not an Earth-sized exoplanet harbors life.
