This discovery is significant because for a long time, methane was not detected in the atmospheres of exoplanets, unlike water vapor, which has been detected in the atmospheres of more than ten exoplanets. At the same time, methane is widespread in the atmospheres of the gas giants of our solar...
Designed to study the distant reaches of the early Universe, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is also focusing on objects in our galactic neighborhood, including the atmospheres of exoplanets. Using JWST observations, a team of astronomers was able to detail the atmospheric composition of the nearby “furry” exoplanet WASP-107b....
Scientists theorize that comets may have spread the organic ingredients necessary for the emergence of life on Earth. New research suggests that comets may also deliver these elements to exoplanets. During the formation of the solar system, the Earth was bombarded by asteroids, comets and other space objects. How the...
More than a decade has passed since the Kepler exoplanet-hunting mission ended in 2018. The space telescope has discovered thousands of planets, many of which bear its name. The list of exoplanet candidates discovered by this space telescope remains the largest collection of known exoplanets. More than a decade has...
Gas giants the size of Jupiter or larger may wreak havoc on young planetary systems by pushing smaller planets, such as the size of Earth, out of their original orbits, according to two new studies. This instability of exoplanet orbits has negative consequences for the emergence and development of life,...
When the JWST space telescope first saw the light in July 2022, it was witnessing a huge research program put together by members of the International Astronomical Union. This list included distant early galaxies, forming planets in gas and dust protoplanetary disks, as well as the end of the “dark...
The first super-Earth discovered by astronomers has been emitting strange signals for almost two decades, and scientists may finally have figured out why it’s happening. A new study suggests that this “dark planet” periodically forms volcanoes, spewing hot gases that form an atmosphere, and then it disappears, leaving the planet...
The new study used a known population of exoplanets for SETI searches and extrapolated to a much larger, unknown population to establish better thresholds for signals from exoplanets. Shear rate refers to the change in frequency of radio signals caused by the movement of the signal source relative to us....
A planet’s chemical composition can reveal information about its history and area of formation, and a planet’s water content can help determine its migration path through the solar system. If a planet formed in the outer regions of the disk and migrated inward, it would be rich in water due...
Finding reliable detections of Earth-sized planets in the habitable zone remains a challenge in the Kepler data sample, even for red M dwarf stars (the brightest M star to Earth observers is Betelgeuse). Previously, researchers assumed that the Kepler sample contained a significant number of stars of the spectral type...
The detection of quartz particles in the exoplanet’s atmosphere was made possible using the James Webb Telescope’s MIRI infrared instrument. This case was the first of its kind. Quartz crystals are very small in size – about 10 nanometers. The presence of these particles was determined using data from the...
Researchers from the University of Turin in Italy and the State Star Observatory of Thuringia in Germany have made an interesting discovery: the exoplanet GJ 367b is most likely composed entirely of iron. This makes it the densest known planet with a short orbital period. GJ 367b was first spotted...
On October 11, an international team of astronomers reported the first observable effects of the collision of two giant adult exoplanets that were orbiting a star similar to our Sun. Such collisions are not uncommon in the history of our solar system, so this discovery sheds light on how systems...
Unraveling the mystery of how planets like Earth form is an important question for understanding the origin of life. Planets are thought to form when interstellar dust and gas collect in a protoplanetary disk surrounding a protostar. However, until now it was unclear where, when and how the formation of...
As astronomers began discovering hundreds and then thousands of exoplanets, they discovered that there were two types of planets that were not represented in our solar system. The first are super-Earths. They share a boundary between large rocky worlds like Earth and small gas planets like Neptune. The second are...
The question of conditions on planet K2-18b remains open and complex. Today, scientists have telescopes and techniques powerful enough to find out which star is in orbit and how far away the exoplanet is, but we cannot obtain direct images of the planet. However, tools make it possible to determine...
