Discoveries of exoplanets

The Webb Space Telescope has revealed a world quite alien compared to our own: WASP-107b, a Neptune-like gas giant that orbits a star some 211 light-years from Earth. Webb has now detected water vapor and sulfur dioxide in the planet’s atmosphere, as well as sand-like silicate clouds.Webb Telescope Images the Pillars of CreationThe planet’s atmosphere is not dense, allowing a team of astronomers to peer deeply into the world using the telescope’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). The team’s work was published today in…

An artist’s rendering of the planet, called LP 791-18 d.Illustration: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Chris Smith (KRBwyle)On this world, the floor is lava and there’s no couch to jump to: Astronomers have described a planet that might be completely covered in active volcanoes. What Is Planet Nine and Why Can’t We Find It?Data from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite and the now deactivated Spitzer Space Telescope revealed an Earth-size rocky planet with some extreme features.The planet, called LP 791-18 d,…

The National Science Foundation says TOI-3757 b (right) is the fluffiest gas giant exoplanet to orbit a red dwarf.Illustration: NSF NOIRLabSpace has no shortage of weird and curious planets. Astronomers using the 3.5-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory report their discovery of a Jupiter-like world with roughly the same density as a marshmallow, rapidly orbiting a red dwarf star. The planet is called TOI-3757 b, and it can be found 580 light-years away from Earth in the Auriga constellation. Scientists find…