Exoplanet atmospheres detected from Earth for the first time
(PhysOrg.com) -- Transiting exoplanets are routinely detected when they pass in front of their parent star as viewed from the Earth, which only happens by chance. The transit event causes a small drop...
View ArticleTurning Planetary Theory Upside Down (w/ Video)
(PhysOrg.com) -- The discovery of nine new transiting exoplanets is announced today at the RAS National Astronomy Meeting. When these new results were combined with earlier observations of transiting...
View ArticleEarly exit for hot Jupiter due to deadly tides
(PhysOrg.com) -- Bad news for planet hunters: most of the "hot Jupiters" that astronomers have been searching for in star clusters were likely destroyed long ago by their stars. In a paper accepted for...
View ArticleAn Exoplanet with a Potassium-Rich Atmosphere
(PhysOrg.com) -- A hot Jupiter - a type of celestial object unknown only fifteen years ago - is a Jupiter-sized exoplanet orbiting so close to its host star that its atmospheric temperature is thought...
View ArticleExoplanet aurora: An out-of-this-world sight
Earth's aurorae, or Northern and Southern Lights, provide a dazzling light show to people living in the polar regions. Shimmering curtains of green and red undulate across the sky like a living thing....
View ArticleTwo more kepler planets confirmed
Hot on the heels of confirming one Kepler planet, the Hobby-Eberly Telescope announces the confirmation of another planet. Another observatory, the Nordic Optical Telescope, confirms its first Kepler...
View ArticleHubble to target 'hot jupiters'
(PhysOrg.com) -- An international team of astronomers led by a former UA graduate student has set out on the largest program to date exploring the alien atmospheres of "Hot Jupiters" - massive planets...
View ArticleFirst planets found around sun-like stars in a cluster
(Phys.org)—NASA-funded astronomers have, for the first time, spotted planets orbiting sun-like stars in a crowded cluster of stars. The findings offer the best evidence yet planets can sprout up in...
View ArticleAstrophysicist suggests planetary misalignment due to multiple star impact
(Phys.org)—Astrophysicist Konstantin Batygin has published a paper in the journal Nature arguing that the reason some planets lie in a tilt off the equatorial plane of their sun is because of the prior...
View ArticleHighly inflated Jupiters
There are currently 851 confirmed extra-solar planets. Of these, 289 were detected because their orbits (as seen from Earth) take them across the face of their host star, dimming the star's light in a...
View ArticleDetection of two new exoplanets with Kepler, SOPHIE and HARPS-N
An international team of astronomers, including Alexandre Santerne of the EXOEarths team at CAUP, identified and characterized two new exoplanets, thanks to combined observations from the Kepler space...
View ArticleSpitzer telescope puts planets in a petri dish
(Phys.org) —Our galaxy is teeming with a wild variety of planets. In addition to our solar system's eight near-and-dear planets, there are more than 800 so-called exoplanets known to circle stars...
View ArticleBig weather on hot Jupiters
Among the hundreds of new planets discovered by NASA's Kepler spacecraft are a class of exotic worlds known as "hot Jupiters." Unlike the giant planets of our own solar system, which remain at a safe...
View ArticleStellar winds may electrify exoplanets
(Phys.org) —The strangest class of exoplanets found to date might be even stranger than astronomers have thought. A new model suggests that they are partially heated by electric currents linked to...
View ArticleStars don't obliterate their planets (very often)
(Phys.org) —Stars have an alluring pull on planets, especially those in a class called hot Jupiters, which are gas giants that form farther from their stars before migrating inward and heating up.
View ArticleHubble reveals variation between hot extrasolar planet atmospheres
First results from the analysis of eight 'hot Jupiter' exoplanets suggest that winds and clouds play an important role in the atmospheric make up of these exotic planets. Catherine Huitson of the...
View ArticleMagnetic fields significantly affect hot Jupiter atmospheres, research finds
Determining weather patterns in exoplanet atmospheres – hundreds to thousands of light years away – is extremely difficult. However, given that it may be one of our best ways to truly characterize...
View ArticleHubble traces subtle signals of water on hazy worlds
(Phys.org) —Using the powerful eye of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, two teams of scientists have found faint signatures of water in the atmospheres of five distant planets.
View ArticleScientists detect water around a hot Jupiter
Scientists at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) are part of a research team that has detected water vapor in the atmosphere of a planet outside our solar system. The team, including scientists from...
View ArticleGemini Planet Imager – a new eye to scan the sky for exoplanets
There is excitement in astronomy and planetary science departments worldwide as the new Gemini Planet Imager, housed in the Gemini South Telescope in the Chilean Andes, turns its razor-sharp gaze to...
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