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exoplanets

Space

A star has been eating an orbiting planet for 85 years

A distant star called FU Orionis has been shining extraordinarily bright for the last 85 years, and it may be because it is incinerating a young, nearby planet that could be fully consumed in another 300 years

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Space

Chaotically shifting planets could be a sign of advanced aliens

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Space

Absolutely enormous asteroid belt discovered around a nearby star

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An artist's impression of a planet about to get munched by a star

Space

We've seen a star devouring a planet for the first time

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Distant world breaks record for heaviest element on an exoplanet

Space

Distant world breaks record for heaviest element on an exoplanet

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A planet, one side covered in water, the other in ice

Space

Exoplanets with a permanent day side may sometimes flip into night

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A super-Earth orbiting its red-dwarf

Physics

Are there planets that are better for life than Earth?

Comment

Trappist-1 is a red-dwarf star, the most common variety, located some 40 light-years away in Aquarius. In 2015, astronomers discovered that Trappist-1 was host to three earth-sized planets. Then it came under the spotlight again in 2017 when NASA scientists found an additional four planets, taking the total up to seven. This is the most terrestrial planets that have ever been found to orbit a single star, including our own Solar System. Trappist-1 is only fractionally larger than Jupiter in diameter. This image shows the star and six of the planets as they would appear from the vantage point of the fifth outermost planet, Trappist-1f. All of the planets and the Sun are to scale. One of the worlds is seen transiting in front of the star.

Space

JWST finds the planet TRAPPIST-1b may not have an atmosphere

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Two planets orbiting a red-dwarf star (illustration)

Space

Up to 74% of planets in the ‘habitable zone’ may not be good for life

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Kepler-138 d (front), Kepler-138 c (left) and Kepler 138 b passing in front of its parent star

Space

Twin planets orbiting a distant star may be half water

A pair of twin planets called Kepler-138 c and d appear to be water worlds, with steamy atmospheres and oceans that take up half their total volume

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Space

What our attempts to communicate with alien civilisations say about us

Features

Space

JWST has spotted chemical reactions in an exoplanet's atmosphere

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Space

The hunt for habitable ocean worlds beyond our solar system

Features

Space

Two exoplanets have a strangely heavy element floating in their skies

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