habitable
An Earth-sized planet found in the habitable zone of a nearby star
An artist’s impression of an exoplanet in the habitable zone around a star. Credits: ESA/Hubble, M. Kornmesser A few months ago a group of NASA exoplanet astronomers, who are in the business of discovering planets around other stars, called me into a secret meeting to tell me about a planet that had captured their interest. …
Vapor found at potentially habitable planet: ‘Possible this is a water world’
An artist’s impression shows K2-18b and its host star. The planet has life-friendly temperatures, and it may have water too. ESA/Hubble, M. Kornmesser For the first time, astronomers looking beyond our solar system have spotted water vapor in the atmosphere of a planet where temperatures might also be just right for life. Exoplanet K2-18b is …
Water found for first time on potentially habitable planet
Image copyright ESA/UCL Image caption Waterworld: up to 50% of the atmosphere of K2-18b may be composed of water Astronomers have for the first time discovered water in the atmosphere of a planet orbiting within the habitable zone of a distant star. The finding makes the world – which is called K2-18b – a plausible …
There May Be Exoplanets Out There Even Better Suited For Life Than Earth
The search for a habitable exoplanet has been a frustrating one. Although we’ve found a bunch of rocky planets orbiting at the right distance from their star, further investigation has so far mostly yielded nothing but barren poisonous rocks lashed with deadly stellar flares. But according to new research using computer modelling to explore …
Astronomers Spy the Surface of An Airless Mercury-Like World | Smart News
By measuring the heat coming from a planet nearly 49 light-years away, astronomers were able to glean some information about the surface of the rocky world—a rare feat in exoplanet science. The observations from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope suggest that the exoplanet LHS 3844 b has no atmosphere, and its surface is likely covered in …
