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Exoplanets

March 2024

  • Artist's impression of a blue-green, steaming ocean with a vivid red sunset in the background

    Astronomers detect ‘waterworld with a boiling ocean’ in deep space

    Exclusive: Significant discovery, made by James Webb telescope, provokes disagreement over conditions on planet’s surface

December 2021

  • NASA's James Webb Space Telescope<br>epa09614360 (FILE) - An undated handout file picture made available by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) shows NASA technicians lifting the James Webb Space Telescope using a crane and moving it inside a clean room at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, USA (issued 01 December 2021). According to NASA, engineering teams have completed additional testing confirming NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is ready for flight, and launch preparations are resuming toward Webb's target launch date on 22 December 2021, at 7:20 a.m. EST. Webb's primary mirror will collect light for the observatory in the scientific quest to better understand our solar system and beyond. The JWST is an international project led by NASA with its European (ESA) and Canadian (CSA) partners. EPA/NASA/Desiree Stover HANDOUT HANDOUT EDITORIAL USE ONLY/NO SALES

    Science Weekly
    Nasa’s new space telescope and its search for extraterrestrial life

    Ian Sample is joined by Prof Beth Biller to talk about the James Webb space telescope, which is scheduled to launch on 22 December, and could give us a view of the universe deeper and more sensitive than we’ve ever had before

October 2021

  • Image taken with the Low-Frequency Array (Lofar)

    ‘I think there’s life out there’: powerful radio antenna used for first time to find exoplanets

    Australian scientists part of team using Low Frequency Array to detect signals indicating planets beyond our solar system

August 2021

  • An artists impression of a Hycean planet

    ‘Mini-Neptunes’ beyond solar system may soon yield signs of life

    Cambridge astronomers identify new hycean class of habitable exoplanets, which could accelerate search for life

February 2021

  • Very Large Telescope

    Astronomers' hopes raised by glimpse of possible new planet

    Bright speck in space near Alpha Centauri A may be evidence of asteroids or dust – or a technical glitch

May 2020

  • The disc around the young AB Aurigae star shows a ‘twist’ marking the spot where a new planet is being formed.

    Astronomers spot potential first evidence of new planet being born

    Researchers observe swirling disc around AB Aurigae star, suggesting new world is forming

March 2020

  • An artist’s impression of iron rain on the planet Wasp-76b, 640 light years away

    Scientists identify rain of molten iron on distant exoplanet

    Conditions on Wasp-76b in Pisces include temperatures of 2,400C and 10,000 mph winds

December 2019

  • A worker rides on his bicycle in Cern’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) tunnel.

    The 2010s: what just happened?
    Science made astonishing progress. It was also hijacked by those with an axe to grind

    Laura Spinney
  • The European Cheops satellite takes off from Kourou, French Guiana early on Wednesday

    Cheops satellite lifts off to study planets beyond solar system

September 2019

  • Planet K2-18b

    Science Weekly
    How to find life beyond Earth - Science Weekly podcast

    As scientists at University College London announce the discovery of water in the atmosphere of a potentially habitable ‘super Earth’, Ian Sample explores our prospects for finding life beyond our own planet

October 2018

  • Artist’s impression of the two BepiColombo orbiters.

    BepiColombo spacecraft launches on mission to Mercury

  • Artist’s impression of the planet Kepler-1625b transiting its star with the suspected exomoon in tow.

    Astronomers discover first suspected 'exomoon' 8,000 light years away

April 2018

  • NASA launches its planet-hunting Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite at Cape Canaveral.

    Spacewatch
    Spacewatch: Tess embarks on planet-hunting mission for Nasa

    The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite will take an elliptical path around Earth to observe stars for evidence of exoplanets

March 2018

  • Hot exoplanet passes in front of its parent star.

    Spacewatch
    Spacewatch: European Space Agency increases research in other solar systems

    The Ariel mission to study the composition of exoplanets is one of a number of exploratory missions at the ESA

November 2017

  • An artist’s impression of the newly discovered Earth-sized planet Ross 128 b.

    Across the universe
    Potentially habitable world found just 11 light years away

    Ross 128 b has been discovered effectively on our cosmic doorstep. It will become a prime target in the search for life beyond the Earth

August 2017

  • This illustration shows what the Trappist-1 system, which lies 39 light-years away from Earth, may look like.

    Four of seven Earth-sized exoplanets may have large quantities of water

    Hubble telescope readings suggesting watery outer planets of Trappist-1 – including three in habitable zone – boosts hope for life beyond our solar system

July 2017

  • An illustration of a tardigrade.

    Tardigrades: Earth’s unlikely beacon of life that can survive a cosmic cataclysm

    Microscopic creatures reassure scientists complete eradication of life on the planet is extremely unlikely

May 2017

  • An artist’s impression the surface of Trappist-1f. Astronomers originally thought this might be the most habitable planet, but its neighbour, Trappist-1g, appears to be the most likely home for life.

    Atmosphere discovery makes Trappist-1 exoplanet priority in hunt for alien life

    An atmosphere that could have enveloped it for billions of years and possible liquid water make planet most likely home for life, say scientists

April 2017

  • A hand out image made available by the European Southern Observatory on August 24 2016, shows an artist's impression of a view of the surface of the planet Proxima b orbiting the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the Solar System. The double star Alpha Centauri AB also appears in the image to the upper-right of Proxima itself. Proxima b is a little more massive than the Earth and orbits in the habitable zone around Proxima Centauri, where the temperature is suitable for liquid water to exist on its surface. Scientists on August 24, 2016 announced the discovery of an Earth-sized planet orbiting the star nearest our Sun, opening up the glittering prospect of a habitable world that may one day be explored by robots. Named Proxima b, the planet is in a "temperate" zone compatible with the presence of liquid water -- a key ingredient for life. / AFP PHOTO / EUROPEAN SOUTHERN OBSERVATORY / M. KornmesserM. KORNMESSER/AFP/Getty Images

    Science Weekly
    Breakthrough Starshot: getting to Proxima Centauri b – Science Weekly podcast

    Hannah Devlin explores the Breakthrough Starshot Initiative, which aims to use lasers to propel spherical sails to Alpha Centauri - our closest star system - over four light years away
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