We care about your data, and we'd like to use cookies to give you a smooth browsing experience. Please agree and read more about our privacy policy.
Quanta Homepage
  • Physics
  • Mathematics
  • Biology
  • Computer Science
  • Topics
  • Archive

What's up in

exoplanets

Latest Articles

Lisa Kaltenegger, a woman with red hair, peers through the eyepiece of an antique telescope.
astrobiology

A Dream of Discovering Alien Life Finds New Hope

By Joshua Sokol
November 3, 2022
Comment
Read Later

For Lisa Kaltenegger and her generation of exoplanet astronomers, decades of planning have set the stage for an epochal detection.

A yellow and orange blob of light appears against a purple grainy background.
astronomy

Webb Space Telescope Snaps Its First Photo of an Exoplanet

By Jonathan O'Callaghan
September 1, 2022
Comment
Read Later

The grainy image of a “super-Jupiter” is a sign of what’s to come as the telescope’s exoplanet observations ramp up.

Image of a spiral galaxy strewn with ribbons of pink light.]
astronomy

Two Weeks In, the Webb Space Telescope Is Reshaping Astronomy

By Jonathan O'Callaghan
July 25, 2022
Comment
Read Later

In the days after the mega-telescope started delivering data, astronomers reported new discoveries about galaxies, stars, exoplanets and even Jupiter.

Colorful opalized shell of a fossil ammonite.
geology

Life Helps Make Almost Half of Earth’s Minerals

By Joanna Thompson
July 1, 2022
Comment
Read Later

A new origins-based system for classifying minerals reveals the huge geochemical imprint that life has left on Earth. It could help us identify other worlds with life too.

an illustration of various objects (a chair, a rocket, a cell phone, etc.) as well as biological objects such as a DNA double-helix and microbe, all against a lime green background
The Joy of Why

What Is Life?

By Steven Strogatz
June 15, 2022
Comment
Read Later

Without a good definition of life, how do we look for it on alien planets? Steven Strogatz speaks with Robert Hazen, a mineralogist and astrobiologist, and Sheref Mansy, a chemist, to learn more.

An array of images of protoplanetary disks with bright suns at the centers surrounded by rings, arcs, filaments and spirals.]
astronomy

Astronomers Reimagine the Making of the Planets

By Rebecca Boyle
June 9, 2022
Comment
Read Later

Observations of faraway planets have forced a near-total rewrite of the story of how our solar system came to be.

climate science

Solving the Faint-Sun Paradox

By Jonathan O'Callaghan
January 27, 2022
Comment
Read Later

We might have a past faint sun to owe for life’s existence. This has consequences for the possibility of life outside Earth.

Collage illustration of the JWST
astrophysics

The Webb Space Telescope Will Rewrite Cosmic History. If It Works.

By Natalie Wolchover
December 3, 2021
Comment
Read Later

The James Webb Space Telescope has the potential to rewrite the history of the cosmos and reshape humanity’s position within it. But first, a lot of things have to work just right.

planetary science

Researchers Revise Recipe for Building a Rocky Planet Like Earth

By Jonathan O'Callaghan
November 3, 2021
Comment
Read Later

Over the past decade, researchers have completely rewritten the story of how gas giants such as Jupiter and Saturn form. They’re now debating whether the same process might hold for Earth.


Previous
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
Next
Follow Quanta
Facebook
Facebook

Twitter
Twitter

Youtube
YouTube

Instagram
Instagram

RSS
RSS

Newsletter

Past Month

Most Read Articles

This Data is Current Loading...
This Data is Current Loading...
This Data is Current Loading...
The Quanta Newsletter

Get highlights of the most important news delivered to your email inbox

Recent newsletters
Quanta Homepage
Facebook
Twitter
Youtube
Instagram

  • About Quanta
  • Archive
  • Contact Us
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Simons Foundation
All Rights Reserved © 2023