exoplanet tagged posts

An artist’s conception of an exoplanet courtesy of NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech. Credit: NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech

Planet-hunting is an ongoing process that’s resulting in the discovery of more and more planets orbiting distant stars. New work reports on a technological upgrade for one method of finding planets or confirming other planetary detections. One of the most-popular and successful techniques for finding and confirming planets the radial velocity method. It takes advantage of the fact that the planet’s gravity also affects the star in return. As a result, astronomers are able to detect the tiny wobbles the planet induces as its gravity tugs on the star. Using this method, astronomers have detected hundreds of exoplanets.

For certain kinds of low-mass stars, however, there are limitations to ...

This artist’s impression shows the super-Earth 55 Cancri e in front of its parent star. Using observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and new analytic software scientists were able to analyse the composition of its atmosphere. It was the first time this was possible for a super-Earth. 55 Cancri e is about 40 light-years away and orbits a star slightly smaller, cooler and less bright than our Sun. As the planet is so close to its parent star, one year lasts only 18 hours and temperatures on the surface are thought to reach around 2000 degrees Celsius. Credit: ESA/Hubble, M. Kornmesser

The first successful detection of gases in the atmosphere of a super-Earth reveals the presence of hydrogen and helium, but no water vapour...