Alien Planets

An exoplanet orbiting a young star is carving out spiral arms in the gas and dust that is birthing its planetary system.

The CHEOPS exoplanet hunter has found a distant world so hot that it has clouds of metal making it the most reflective planet ever seen.

Finding liquid water on exoplanets is 100 times more probable than previously thought, boosting the odds of alien life significantly, a new study suggests.

Do you want that toasted? A newly suggested planet formation process suggests smaller worlds could be created when a gas and dust filling is squeezed between two larger planets.

The James Webb Space Telescope spotted the carbon molecule methyl cation in a planet-forming disk around a red dwarf star.

The cold and mysterious Oort cloud at the edge of our solar system may be hiding a rogue exoplanet, new research suggests.

The discovery of the giant planet Halla suggests that planets close to their stars can survive the rapid expansion seen as they enter their end-of-life red giant phase.

The exoplanet LP 890-9c resides near the inner edge of its star's habitable zone, and if conditions are favorable it could potentially support liquid water and life.

New data from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope shows that the atmosphere of a rocky exoplanet in the TRAPPIST-1 system is either nonexistent or incredibly thin.

Astronomers have discovered what may be behind a mysterious stellar flare that has been raging for 85 years, finding it could be caused by the destruction of a super-Jupiter planet.

A new viral video by a NASA astrobiologist explains the space agency's efforts to find out whether we are alone in the universe.

A new small satellite will peer at distant stars to help NASA's James Webb Space Telescope search for potentially habitable exoplanets.

Astronomers have taken a deeper look at the scorching hot giant exoplanet WASP-76b, where iron rains from the sky to determine the other chemical elements that comprise its blistering atmosphere.

How hot Jupiters form and evolve is one of the oldest questions in exoplanet research.

Astronomers have used NASA's TESS telescope to discover a new 'warm Jupiter' exoplanet with a strange orbit.

Astronomers spotted four elusive mini-Neptune planets with the exoplanet-hunting telescope CHEOPS.

The discovery of the new planet BEBOP-1c confirms the 2nd-ever known planetary system orbiting twin stars similar to the fictional planet Tatooine of Star Wars fame.

Astronomers discovered two mini-Neptunes and a third potential exoplanet in the final data sent home by NASA's Kepler space telescope just before it was decommissioned in late 2018.

The James Webb Space Telescope spotted water in the atmosphere of the exoplanet WASP-18 b, which reaches nearly 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,700 degrees Celsius).

A newfound exoplanet that lies 90 light-years from Earth may be studded with active volcanoes, whose emissions could sustain an atmosphere.