What can star variability—changes in a star's brightness over time—teach astronomers about exoplanet habitability? This is ...

When astronomers search for planets that could host liquid water on their surface, they start by looking at a star's habitable zone. Water is a key ingredient for life, and on a planet too close to ...

For decades, the search for alien life has revolved around a narrow ring around stars where liquid water could exist on a planet’s surface. That “habitable zone” remains important, but astronomers are ...

Do certain exoplanets mirror Earth regarding their distribution of iron and water? This is what a recent study published in Nature Astronomy hopes to address as an international team of researchers ...

What happens when a planet contains immense quantities of water but is far too hot for that water to remain liquid?

As much as 95% of an exoplanet's water could be trapped forever deep inside its iron core, transforming what we thought we knew about water worlds and potentially rendering them even more habitable ...

Still, science being science, we needed proof—and we got it in 1992, when two astronomers found two planets orbiting a pulsar ...

"When the Earth's mantle melts, it produces basalts," said Esteban Gazel, professor of engineering. Basalt, a gray-black volcanic rock found throughout the solar system, are key recorders of geologic ...

Scientists have discovered the strongest evidence to date for a stratosphere on a planet outside our solar system, or exoplanet. A stratosphere is a layer of atmosphere in which temperature increases ...

Named for the Gaelic god of war, Smertrios has a composition and density that are a challenge to planet formation models. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate ...

An international team including astronomers from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) and the National Center of Competence in ...