Tagged: planets

ALIEN life could exist on distant planets, scientists have found. A study has shown that habitable rocky planets are likely to have formed in the Alpha Centauri system, a trio of stars 4.37 light years, or 25.8 trillion miles, from Earth. Scientists at the University...

A STUDY shows there could be life away from Earth as Astronomers estimate there are at least 17 billion stars with Earth-sized planets across our galaxy. EARTH could have many billions of twins strewn across the Milky Way, a study suggests. Astronomers estimate that at...

WATER is “common” across alien worlds according to the most extensive study of exoplanet atmospheres yet. Scientists say it offers hope in the hunt for life on other planets – and could improve how we target our search. Exoplanets are alien worlds that sit outside...

Though researchers continue to hunt for the mysterious Planet 9, experts have discovered evidence that another planet, residing between Uranus and Saturn, “escaped” billions of years ago. The research, published in the scientific journal Icarus, suggests that an “ice giant” was “kicked out” in the...

Earth’s orbit within the sun’s habitable zone means its temperatures are just right for life. But icy worlds located within their star’s habitable zone may abruptly skip from too cold to too hot without going through a habitable stage, a new study finds. The finding...

This past year was a banner one for the field of exoplanet science, with the tally of known alien worlds doubling to nearly 2,000 by the end of 2014. Here’s a look at the top exoplanet discoveries of 2014, from the first potentially habitable Earth-size...

Scientists have created the first-ever cloud map of a planet beyond our solar system. Although the roughly Jupiter-size Kepler-7b lies far closer to its star than scorching-hot Mercury does to the sun, astronomers using NASA’s Kepler and Spitzer space telescopes have determined that clouds exist...

Astronomers have increased the size of the observable solar system after spotting a 450-km wide object orbiting the sun. The lump of ice and rock circles the sun at a greater distance than any known object, and never gets closer than 12bn kilometres – 80...

Though humanity has yet to discover the presence of extraterrestrial life, that hasn’t stopped astronomers from suggesting the universe is teeming with life. A new study suggests that planets with “significant airborne dust” could be the places to look. The research, published in the journal...

A group of scientists used reanalyzed data from NASA’s Kepler space telescope to discover an Earth-size exoplanet orbiting in its star’s habitable zone. For the space agency’s purposes, habitable zone means the area around a star where a planet could support liquid water — and,...