What's up in
As astronomers get better at finding the comets and asteroids of other stars, they’ll learn more about the universe and our place in it.
The astronomers Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz won half of the prize for their 1995 discovery of a Jupiter-like planet orbiting a nearby star. The cosmologist James Peebles won the other half for work exploring the structure of the universe.
After an interstellar asteroid shot past the sun, scientists realized that there’s probably a lot of itinerant rocks out there.
Astronomers have discovered a complex planetary system still swirling into existence.
Astronomers are puzzling over a paucity of planets in the galaxy measuring between 1.5 and two times Earth’s size.
Astronomers will soon take their first glance at the atmosphere of a distant exoplanet. Sarah Hörst is writing the guidebook for these exoplanetary explorers, one that will reveal what a distinctive atmosphere says about the world underneath.
The new finding is challenging established theories of how planets come to be.
Life needs more than water alone. Recent discoveries suggest that plate tectonics has played a critical role in nourishing life on Earth. The findings carry major consequences for the search for life elsewhere in the universe.
Detailed images of disks swirling around young stars show the details of how solar systems come to be.