Subscribe now
The planet 8 Ursae Minoris b

‘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


Vast worlds called brown dwarfs have extraordinarily powerful winds

Vast worlds called brown dwarfs have extraordinarily powerful winds

9 April 2020

Brown dwarfs, which are halfway between huge planets and small stars, have extremely powerful winds whipping around them at speeds of about 650 metres per second


Star near planet

Stars that eat planets can start spinning so fast they rip apart

20 September 2019

When a star engulfs a planet it can end up spinning so fast that it rips apart. The resulting debris could help us learn about exoplanets that were consumed


Earth may be made up of rocks blasted by gusts of solar wind

Earth may be made up of rocks blasted by gusts of solar wind

6 December 2018

The area in our solar system within Mercury’s orbit is empty, which may be because solar winds threw all the rocks farther out, where they helped form planets


The Kepler spacecraft is dead but its planet-hunting legacy lives on

The Kepler spacecraft is dead but its planet-hunting legacy lives on

7 November 2018

On 30 October, NASA announced that the Kepler planet-hunting spacecraft is being shut down. Over almost a decade, it changed our views on our place in the universe


Frankenstein planets may form from the wreckage of dead worlds

Frankenstein planets may form from the wreckage of dead worlds

17 May 2018

When stars die, they can explode and destroy any planets nearby. But new worlds could arise out of the debris and some could reach the mass of 10 Earths


ESA eyes Venus mission or space telescope to launch by 2030

ESA eyes Venus mission or space telescope to launch by 2030

8 May 2018

The European Space Agency has three finalists for a mission to launch by 2030: a Venus probe and two space telescopes to view ancient gamma rays and young stars


A planet close to a burning star

Star nicknamed Kronos after eating its own planetary children

21 September 2017

A pair of binary stars are less alike than any pair we’ve seen, possibly because one gobbled its own orbiting planets, winning it the nickname Kronos


Brown dwarfs have strong magnetic fields just like real stars

Brown dwarfs have strong magnetic fields just like real stars

15 September 2017

Failed stars called brown dwarfs straddle the line between big planets and small stars. An observation of a magnetic field puts another tick in the star column


two maps of heat maps of twin plants side by side

Mistaken brown dwarf is actually two planets orbiting each other

14 June 2017

New observations reveal a rare binary planet system made of two gas giants four times as massive as Jupiter that likely formed in the breakup of a protostar 10 million years ago


Sign up to our weekly newsletter

Receive a weekly dose of discovery in your inbox. We'll also keep you up to date with New Scientist events and special offers.

Sign up
Piano Exit Overlay Banner Mobile Piano Exit Overlay Banner Desktop