A dead star may have munched down on an icy exomoon
5 February 2021
We have yet to confirm the existence of moons beyond the solar system, but astronomers say they may have found exomoon remains in the atmosphere of a dead star
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Found 317 results for dwarf planet
An Earth-like planet might orbit our closest single sun-like star
14 January 2021
Tau Ceti is a star just 12 light years away – and it could host a planet called PXP-4 that sits as close to the star as Earth does to our sun with its year about as long as ours
White dwarfs seen eating the remnants of destroyed planets
12 January 2021
Signs of the metals that make up Earth’s crust have been seen in the light coming from four dead stars known as white dwarfs, which may have consumed distant planets similar to ours
We’ve seen a planet being born while its star is still forming
17 November 2020
Astronomers may have seen a Jupiter-like planet begin to form while its host star is still growing, proving a long-held theory about planet formation
Dwarf planet Ceres may be home to an underground ocean
10 August 2020
New analysis of data from the Dawn spacecraft suggests there may be a liquid water ocean beneath the Occator crater on Ceres, the largest asteroid in the solar system
Earth-sized exoplanets around small stars may have intense hurricanes
14 July 2020
Hurricanes may be common on exoplanets that orbit small, red stars over the course of about 10 days, and they are most likely to form on planets that are tidally locked, and so have one side with perpetual daytime
Pluto's tiny moons may have been chipped off its biggest moon
30 June 2020
Pluto has one very large moon, Charon, and four tiny ones, leaving astronomers confused as to how they formed. The answer may be that the quartet used to be part of Charon, not Pluto
Three exoplanets are close enough for us to see their atmospheres
25 June 2020
A star just 11 light years away is calm enough that we may be able to study the atmospheres of three planets that seem to orbit it – one of which could be in the star's habitable zone
Vast worlds called brown dwarfs have extraordinarily powerful winds
9 April 2020
Brown dwarfs, which are halfway between huge planets and small stars, have extremely powerful winds whipping around them at speeds of about 650 metres per second
Pluto formed quickly with a deep ocean covering its entire surface
30 March 2020
Pluto’s ancient oceans may have come about just after the icy world was born, melting from ice in a process that suggests the dwarf planet took just 30,000 years to form
