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KRB4DP This is an artist's impression of the view from the vicinity of a hypothetical terrestrial planet and moon orbiting the red dwarf star AU Microscopii. The relatively newborn 12 million year-old star is surrounded by a very dusty disk of debris from the collision of comets, asteroids, and planetissimals swirling around the young star. Though no planets have been discovered around the star, the disk is strong circumstantial evidence for planets. Not only is it dusty, but also it is warped, possibly by the pull of one or more planets. In this view the glow of starlight reflecting off the disk cre

Mysterious cold blobs may be hiding inside a distant star

10 June 2022

A small star called AU Microscopii seems to contain strange pockets of hydrogen that are more than 1500°C cooler than the rest of the star, and astronomers aren’t sure why

TESS spacecraft in front of Earth and the moon TESS will look at the nearest, brightest stars to find planetary candidates that scientists will observe for years to come. Credits: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center As the search for life on distant planets heats up, NASA?s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is bringing this hunt closer to home. Launching in 2017-2018, TESS will identify planets orbiting the brightest stars just outside our solar system using what?s known as the transit method. When a planet passes in front of, or transits, its parent star, it blocks some of the star's light. TESS searches for these telltale dips in brightness, which can reveal the planet's presence and provide additional information about it.

Search starlight to help astronomers discover new exoplanets

4 May 2022

Comb through observations from NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite to help find new planets, says Layal Liverpool

Astronomers still can't agree on what counts as a planet

25 March 2022

In 2006, the International Astronomical Union came up with a new way to classify planets that famously saw Pluto downgraded. Now a new row has started as astronomers try to define exoplanets

Is our solar system a cosmic oddity? Evidence from exoplanets says yes

1 December 2021

When we started finding planetary systems around other stars we thought many of them would be like ours. We’ve now found hundreds – and it’s so far, so wrong

Dwarf planet Ceres is shown in these false-color renderings, which highlight differences in surface materials.

Now is the perfect time to see dwarf planet Ceres for yourself

24 November 2021

The only dwarf planet in the inner solar system, Ceres will be at its closest to Earth for a week from the end of November. Catch it while you can, says Abigail Beall

Stars imaged by the DECam Plane Survey TIC 400799224 is identified in the crosshairs.

Weird shape-shifting clouds of dust seem to be orbiting a distant star

14 October 2021

The light from a distant star appears to be orbited by something that is continually changing shape and size, possibly clouds of dust from repeated collisions

Jupiter-like planet survived the death of its star without harm

13 October 2021

Astronomers have spotted a Jupiter-like planet in its original orbit around a white dwarf for the first time

Chris Mason interview: Let's tweak human DNA for life on other planets

14 July 2021

To become an interplanetary species, we may have to genetically engineer ourselves to be more resilient, says geneticist Chris Mason. He has a 500-year plan for life away from Earth

An enormous ‘mega comet’ is flying into our solar system

21 June 2021

Astronomers have found a large object entering our solar system – it could be an unusually large comet or even a minor planet, and it will get nearly as close to the sun as Saturn by 2031

Pluto is covered in huge red patches and we don't know what they are

21 June 2021

Huge swathes of Pluto’s surface are covered in a mysterious red material, and planetary scientists’ best guess for what it could be doesn’t seem to match up to data from the New Horizons probe