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

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

27 March 2023

Many researchers thought the worlds orbiting the star TRAPPIST-1 would have thick atmospheres, but new observations of one of them show that it doesn’t

Visualisation of the dwarf planet Quaoar

Dwarf planet Quaoar has a weirdly big ring of debris encircling it

8 February 2023

Quaoar, a dwarf planet in our solar system, has a ring of debris orbiting it that is far further out than we thought the laws of physics allow

‘Forbidden’ planet somehow escaped consumption by its dying host star

26 January 2023

The planet 8 Ursae Minoris b should have been destroyed when its star became a red giant, but it continues to orbit strangely close to it

Two planets orbiting a red-dwarf star (illustration)

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

19 January 2023

Many planets that have the right temperatures for liquid water on their surfaces used to be too hot or too cold, which may affect their ability to host life now

Habitable Blue Earth Like Planet with Two Moons and Sun in Space - Livable Exoplanet with Dual Moons | Alien Life in Universe - 3D Rendering; Shutterstock ID 1750393787; purchase_order: -; job: -; client: -; other: -

How a planet became a character in my new novel

18 January 2023

My new novel The Terraformers explores what you might include - and leave out - if you were building an Earth-like planet. I spoke to some scientists to see what might work, says Annalee Newitz

JWST has taken astonishing images of debris orbiting a nearby star

11 January 2023

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has observed a glowing disc of debris left over from planet formation around a nearby star called AU Microscopii

How JWST could find signs of alien life in exoplanet atmospheres

9 November 2022

The James Webb Space Telescope can peer into alien skies like never before. With six potentially habitable planets within its sights, astronomers are entering a new era in the search for biology beyond our solar system

Manifest. (L to R) Josh Dallas as Ben Stone, Melissa Roxburgh as Michaela Stone in episode 405 of Manifest. Cr. Peter Kramer/Netflix ?? 2022

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26 October 2022

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The hunt for habitable ocean worlds beyond our solar system

24 October 2022

Astronomers think that planets covered in water, with oceans hundreds of metres deep, could be relatively common in our galaxy. Now the race is on to find one

An artist's impression of the Kuiper belt

A long-lost rogue planet could explain unexpectedly distant asteroids

1 October 2022

The outer solar system holds some chunks of ice and rock that orbit so far from the sun it’s hard to imagine how they got there – but an ancient rogue planet may hold the key