Exoplanets

Planets outside of our Solar System are rather dull things. So dull, we can only see them directly by sifting out a scattering of reflected rays amid the glare of their parent star. Even then, the best we can manage is a pinprick to identify its position.  Gathering enough light to reveal intricate details of these distant worlds would require a lens far larger than anything we can construct. One wider than Earth. Wider than Jupiter, in fact.Fortunately, cosmic-scale lenses happen to exist already. Thanks to the way that…

In a major milestone for astronomy, NASA has confirmed the existence of a massive 5,000 planets beyond our own solar system. Not so long ago, we only knew a handful of planets that revolved around our Sun, but the quest to know the world beyond always continued. NASA has now added a fresh batch of 65 planets outside our immediate solar family to its exoplanet archive, pushing the total beyond the 5,000 mark — after a 30-year journey of astronomical discoveries. The NASA Exoplanet Archive records discoveries that have been…

NASA scientists have found planets where the temperature goes past 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit (roughly 1650 degrees Celsius), enough to melt even titanium. During their studies of ultra-hot exoplanets, teams of astronomers working with the NASA Hubble Telescope reported on WASP-178b, an exoplanet 1300 light-years away. Using NASA's iconic Hubble Space Telescope, the astronomers found that the one side of WASP-178b is always positioned in front of its burning star. During the daytime, it was observed that the atmosphere on…