Astronomers find an ultra-dense mega-Earth 23 times our planet’s mass but only 2.5 times its size
GJ 523b is 2.55 times Earth’s radius but about 23.5 times its mass, making it unusually dense for…
Astronomers find four Barnard’s Star planets to be small, uninhabitable, with years lasting only days
Barnard’s Star has four small rocky planets packed extremely close to the star.Their atmospheres probably disappeared billions of…
Jupiter-like exoplanet helping scientists rethink how solar systems form
A planet so distant that its starlight began traveling toward Earth around the Middle Ages has given one…
Jupiter’s jet streams dive into extreme atmospheric regions
Jupiter does not sit still. Its atmosphere races around the planet in more than 20 east-west jet streams,…
Astronomers map the climate of Earth-like exoplanets for the first time
A pair of scorched worlds circling the red dwarf TRAPPIST-1 now offer one of the clearest looks yet…
Mars has air, but almost none of it can keep you alive
For all the drama around getting to Mars, the harder question starts after landing. A person can step…
The haziest planet we’ve ever seen won’t give up its secrets
Something is hiding inside Kepler-51d, and it’s doing a remarkably good job of it. About 2,615 light-years away…