18 June 2023
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
10 June 2022
A small star called AU Microscopii seems to contain strange pockets of hydrogen that are more than 1500°C cooler than the rest of the star, and astronomers aren’t sure why
28 September 2021
Astronomers have spotted hints of a planet that orbits a distant system of three stars – if confirmed, it will be the first time such a world has been found
13 September 2021
Stars that have eaten their planets aren't promising places to look for alien life, and now there is a technique that can help quickly identify such stars from their chemistry
14 January 2021
Tau Ceti is a star just 12 light years away – and it could host a planet called PXP-4 that sits as close to the star as Earth does to our sun with its year about as long as ours
7 August 2019
Exoplanets are abundant near the galaxy's smallest stars. Observing M dwarfs could teach us more about the worlds beyond our solar system, writes Chanda Prescod-Weinstein
18 July 2018
In the hunt for life beyond Earth, we've been looking for planets and stars like our own. But that is flawed – and a new plan promises answers in our lifetimes
1 June 2018
The hottest planets in the universe are half star, half cloudy oasis. In the light, it’s too hot for molecules to hold together, but they reform into clouds on the dark side
20 April 2018
The clouds on WASP-104b – an exoplanet orbiting a star 466 light years away – have been swept away by radiation, leaving a surface that reflects almost no light
18 January 2018
Red giant stars may be tricking us into thinking they have planets when they don’t. Instead, sunspots or atmospheric ripples might be distorting their light
