How can we know if we"re looking at habitable exo-Earths or hellish exo-Venuses?
The differences between Earth and Venus are obvious to us. One is radiant with life and adorned with glittering seas, and the other is a scorching, glowering hellhole, its volcanic surface shrouded by thick clouds and visible only with radar. But the.....»»
Webb finds water vapor, but is it from a rocky planet or its star?
GJ 486 b is about 30% larger than the Earth and three times as massive, which means it is a rocky world with stronger gravity than Earth. It orbits a red dwarf star in just under 1.5 Earth days. It is too close to its star to be within the habitable.....»»
Astronomers discover two super-Earths orbiting nearby star
Using NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), an international team of astronomers has discovered two "super-Earth" exoplanets orbiting a nearby M-dwarf star known as TOI-2095. The newfound alien worlds have short orbital periods and are.....»»
What the JUICE spacecraft is hoping to learn about Jupiter’s icy moons
Tomorrow sees the launch of the JUICE spacecraft, which will travel to the Jupiter system to investigate whether the moons there could be potentially habitable......»»
A European Space Probe Sets Its Sights on the Jupiter System
The Juice spacecraft will zoom in on the moon Ganymede, which might have a habitable ocean deep underground......»»
New Mars research review tells story of the red planet"s atmosphere evolution
Mars is one of the most studied planets in our solar system, second only to Earth. Signs point to the red planet once existing as a habitable world like our own, mustering intense fascination from scientists to understand the history of Mars' environ.....»»
Fly around Jezero Crater on Mars in this new video
There's a reason Jezero Crater was chosen as the landing site for the Perseverance Rover: it is considered one of the likeliest places to find any evidence if Mars was ever habitable for long periods of time. In this great new flyby video from ESA, y.....»»
Tidally locked exoplanets could be habitable in the ‘terminator zone’
There are exoplanets where one side is always in sunlight and the other is always dark. But a particular region of these planets could be habitable......»»
How NASA’s Dragonfly mission will assess Titan for habitability
NASA's robotic rotorcraft Dragonfly will explore Saturn's moon Titan -- a location that is intriguing because it is thought to be potentially habitable......»»
Venus could have had oceans long after life started on Earth
Today Venus has a dry, oxygen-poor atmosphere. But recent studies have proposed that the early planet may have had liquid water and reflective clouds that could have sustained habitable conditions. Researchers at the University of Chicago, Department.....»»
Distant star TOI-700 has two potentially habitable planets orbiting it
NASA recently announced the discovery of a new, Earth-sized planet in the habitable zone of a nearby star called TOI-700. We are two of the astronomers who led the discovery of this planet, called TOI-700 e. TOI-700 e is just over 100 light years fro.....»»
Researchers: New planets might support life
Astronomers announced they have uncovered a star system with 3 potentially habitable planets......»»
The Ohio Derailment Lays Bare the Hellish Plastic Crisis
Events in East Palestine are a stark reminder that plastic is destroying the planet. From its production to its use to its disposal, the stuff is a poison......»»
How can we know if we"re looking at habitable exo-Earths or hellish exo-Venuses?
The differences between Earth and Venus are obvious to us. One is radiant with life and adorned with glittering seas, and the other is a scorching, glowering hellhole, its volcanic surface shrouded by thick clouds and visible only with radar. But the.....»»
Small laser device can help detect signs of life on other planets
As space missions delve deeper into the outer solar system, the need for more compact, resource-conserving and accurate analytical tools has become increasingly critical—especially as the hunt for extraterrestrial life and habitable planets or moon.....»»
Scientists unveil a unified theory for rocky planet formation
A new theory for how rocky planets form could explain the origin of so-called "super-Earths"—a class of exoplanets a few times more massive than Earth that are the most abundant type of planet in the galaxy......»»
NASA"s TESS discovers planetary system"s second Earth-size world
Using data from NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, scientists have identified an Earth-size world, called TOI 700 e, orbiting within the habitable zone of its star—the range of distances where liquid water could occur on a planet's surfa.....»»
We could spread life to the Milky Way with comets. But should we?
Here's a thorny problem: What if life doesn't always appear on planets that can support it? What if we find more and more exoplanets and determine that some of them are habitable? What if we also determine that life hasn't appeared on them yet?.....»»
Are planets tidally locked to red dwarfs habitable? It"s complicated
Astronomers are keenly interested in red dwarfs and the planets that orbit them. Up to 85% of the stars in the Milky Way could be red dwarfs, and 40% of them might host Earth-like exoplanets in their habitable zones, according to some research......»»
Astronomers discover two potentially habitable exo-Earths around a star near the sun
An international scientific team led by researchers at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) has discovered the presence of two planets with Earth-like masses in orbit around the star GJ 1002, a red dwarf not far from the solar system. Both.....»»
Scientists may have found the first water worlds
Density suggests these "super-Earths" are more like giant, hot Europas. Enlarge (credit: NASA, ESA, Leah Hustak) Two planets that were originally discovered by the Kepler mission may not be what we thought they were. Bas.....»»