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Distant planet may be the first known to share its orbit with another

19 July 2023

Exoplanet PDS 70b, a gas giant seven times the mass of Jupiter, appears to share an orbit with a ball of dust around the mass of Earth's moon, which could be forming a new planet

A star has been eating an orbiting planet for 85 years

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

Chaotically shifting planets could be a sign of advanced aliens

12 May 2023

Simulations show planets that jockey for position around their star and appear to bounce off each other could survive in stable configurations - but it is unclear if they could occur naturally

Absolutely enormous asteroid belt discovered around a nearby star

8 May 2023

Astronomers used the James Webb Space Telescope to spot strange asteroid belts around the nearby star Fomalhaut, along with evidence for at least three planets

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

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

3 May 2023

In a preview of what’s to come for Earth in about 5 billion years, astronomers have spotted a sun-like star gobbling up a planet and belching out a blast of light and energy

Distant world breaks record for heaviest element on an exoplanet

19 April 2023

The element samarium has been spotted in the atmosphere of a planet called MASCARA-4b, breaking the record for heaviest element ever detected in a world beyond our solar system

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

Exoplanets with a permanent day side may sometimes flip into night

11 April 2023

Some planets outside our solar system are thought to be tidally locked, with one side always facing their star, creating a world divided into hot and cold. Now, it seems this set-up may not be permanent after all, allowing the two sides to flip

Are there planets that are better for life than Earth?

7 April 2023

Philosophers have long debated whether Earth is the best of all worlds. More powerful telescopes are finally giving us a better chance of answering this question, writes astronomer Chris Impey

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

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

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