All Articles Tagged As: extra-solar planets

Open clusters like Orion have low fertility rate (7/8/2008)

A detailed survey of stars in the Orion Nebula has found that fewer than 10 percent have enough surrounding dust to make Jupiter-sized planets ...> Full Article

A Trio of Super-Earths (6/17/2008)

A harvest of low-mass exoplanets discovered with HARPS ...> Full Article

Smallest planet recorded (6/4/2008)

Astronomers have discovered a tiny star with its own planet, 3000 light years away. ...> Full Article

How like Earth are alien planets? (5/31/2008)

AT LAST we are seeing big rewards in the hunt for "super-Earths" - rocky alien worlds a few times more massive than our own. ...> Full Article

Exoplanet hunt update (5/26/2008)

Two new exoplanets and an unknown celestial object are the latest findings of the COROT mission. These discoveries mean that the mission has now found a total of four new exoplanets. ...> Full Article

Planets by the Dozen (5/11/2008)

Astronomers too start a massive search for new planets by observing about 11,000 nearby stars over 6 years ...> Full Article

Record-setting Laser May Aid Searches for Earthlike Planets (5/6/2008)

Laser used as a frequency comb-an ultraprecise technique for measuring different colors of light-could boost the sensitivity of astronomical tools searching for other Earthlike planets as much as 100 fold ...> Full Article

Plan to identify watery earth-like planets develops (4/26/2008)

Astronomers are looking to identify Earth-like watery worlds circling distant stars from a glint of light seen through an optical space telescope and a mathematical method ...> Full Article

The Drifting Star (4/17/2008)

By studying in great detail the 'ringing' of a planet-harbouring star, a team of astronomers using ESO's 3.6-m telescope have shown that it must have drifted away from the metal-rich Hyades cluster ...> Full Article

New rocky planet found in constellation Leo (4/10/2008)

Scientists have discovered a possible terrestrial-type planet orbiting a star in the constellation of Leo ...> Full Article

Laser precision added to search for new Earths (4/7/2008)

Measuring ability leaps with new instrument ...> Full Article

Catching planets in the making (4/7/2008)

Team sees first signs of formation's middle stages ...> Full Article

Astronomers find baby planet (4/3/2008)

Astronomers have found a baby planet still in the stages of forming and encased within a 'womb' of gas ...> Full Article

The WASP factory finds 10 new planets in the last 6 months (4/2/2008)

Discoveries of extrasolar planets made by international team of astronomers. ...> Full Article

A Planet in Progress? (3/28/2008)

Astrophysicists observe a circumstellar disk with telltale signs of planet formation ...> Full Article

Water Vapor Detected in Protoplanetary Disks (3/24/2008)

Water is an essential ingredient for forming planets, yet has remained hidden from scientists searching for it in protoplanetary systems, the spinning disks of particles surrounding newly formed stars where planets are born. Now the detection of water vapor in the inner part of two extrasolar protoplanetary disks brings scientists one step closer to understanding water's role during terrestrial planet formation. ...> Full Article

Hubble finds first organic molecule on planet outside our solar system (3/22/2008)

A UK/US team of astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has made the first detection ever of an organic molecule in a planet orbiting another star. This breakthrough is an important step in eventually identifying signs of life on a planet outside our Solar System. ...> Full Article

Astronomers find grains of sand around distant stars (3/16/2008)

Study provides clues about the formation of Earth-like planets ...> Full Article

First advert to be broadcast into space (3/10/2008)

The campaign to broadcast the first ever advert into space is launched today (Friday March 7)- with University of Leicester space scientists playing a key part in the process. ...> Full Article

Nearby star should harbor detectable, Earth-like planets (3/9/2008)

A rocky planet similar to Earth may be orbiting one of our nearest stellar neighbors and could be detected using existing techniques ...> Full Article

Dark Energy, the Milky Way galaxy, and giant planets (1/15/2008)

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Continues - new program of four coordinated surveys will revolutionize the study of the distant universe ...> Full Article

Two unusual older stars giving birth to second wave of planets (1/14/2008)

Hundreds of millions - or even billions - of years after planets would have initially formed around two unusual stars, a second wave of planetesimal and planet formation appears to be taking place, UCLA astronomers and colleagues believe. ...> Full Article

Search for new planets part of ambitious new sky survey (1/14/2008)

A University of Florida-led sky survey that may double the number of known planets outside the solar system is part of a major new survey program announced today at the American Astronomical Society's annual meeting in Austin, Texas. ...> Full Article

Heat from the Heavens - Opening up the Infrared Sky (1/13/2008)

The infrared sky is expanding significantly for the world astronomical community with the first world release of data (DR1) from the UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS). ...> Full Article

Astronomers are First to Successfully Predict Extra-Solar Planet (1/11/2008)

A researcher who attended the UA as an undergraduate led the team. ...> Full Article

Weird Object May Be Result of Colliding Protoplanets (1/11/2008)

Heat from a titanic whack explains the extra energy ...> Full Article

Exoplanet Reflected Light Detected For The First Time (12/30/2007)

An international team of astronomers, led by Professor Svetlana Berdyugina of ETH Zurich's Institute of Astronomy, has for the first time ever been able to detect and monitor the visible light that is scattered in the atmosphere of an exoplanet. ...> Full Article

COROT surprises a year after launch (12/23/2007)

The space-borne telescope, COROT (Convection, Rotation and planetary Transits), has just completed its first year in orbit. The observatory has brought in surprises after over 300 days of scientific observations. ...> Full Article

Hazy Red Sunset On Extrasolar Planet (12/15/2007)

A team of astronomers have used the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to detect, for the first time, strong evidence of hazes in the atmosphere of a planet orbiting a distant star. The discovery comes after extensive observations made recently with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). ...> Full Article

Really Big Planets: When Do Gas Giants Reach The Point Of No Return? (12/9/2007)

Planetary scientists at UCL have identified the point at which a star causes the atmosphere of an orbiting gas giant to become critically unstable, as reported in this week's Nature (December 6). Depending upon their proximity to a host star, giant Jupiter-like planets have atmospheres which are either stable and thin, or unstable and rapidly expanding. This new research enables us to work out whether planets in other systems are stable or unstable by using a three dimensional model to characterise their upper atmospheres. ...> Full Article

Probing the nurseries of miniature planetary systems (11/26/2007)

New research led by a University of St Andrews astronomer has found evidence for what might be the raw material for the beginning of shrunken versions of our solar system - miniature worlds in the making. ...> Full Article

Planets forming in Pleiades star cluster, astronomers report (11/17/2007)

Rocky terrestrial planets, perhaps like Earth, Mars or Venus, appear to be forming or to have recently formed around a star in the Pleiades ("seven sisters") star cluster, the result of "monster collisions" of planets or planetary embryos. ...> Full Article

Stars well-endowed with gold have fewer companions (11/8/2007)

A new astronomical study adds an unexpected twist to the complications: stars well-endowed with gold and other heavy elements have fewer stellar companions. Researchers believe their discovery could help track down Earth-like planets outside of our solar system. ...> Full Article

Record 5th planet found around nearby star (11/7/2007)

A team of American astronomers announced the discovery of a record-breaking fifth planet around the nearby star 55 Cancri, making it the only star aside from the sun known to have five planets. ...> Full Article

Astronomer's role in new planets discovery (11/3/2007)

A researcher is part of the leading team of planet-hunting astronomers that have announced the discovery of three new planets today ...> Full Article

Team models a cornucopia of Earth-sized planets (11/3/2007)

Astronomers have created models for 14 different types of solid planets that might exist in our galaxy. ...> Full Article

Sign Of 'Embryonic Planets' Forming In Nearby Stellar Systems (10/6/2007)

Astronomers are pointing to three nearby stars they say may hold "embryonic planets"—a missing link in planet-formation theories. ...> Full Article