The James Webb Space Telescope offers astronomers a rare glimpse into the chemical composition of a rocky planet’s interior—and the results are “very surprising.”
exoplanets
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Telescopes Catch the Aftermath of an Energetic Planetary Collision
A planetary collision 1,800 light-years away birthed a body that has cooled in unexpected ways.
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Earth May Survive the Sun’s Demise
A distant white dwarf hosts an Earth-like planet in an orbit that might be similar to Earth’s if it survives the Sun’s red giant phase.
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Small Stars Produce Mighty UV Flares
Stronger-than-expected ultraviolet flares could either provide exoplanets the sparks of life or prevent them from having life at all.
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Anemic Stars Don’t Host Super-Earths
Planetary systems need the right stuff to make planets, and some stars just don’t have it.
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Smells Like an Exoplanet
Hydrogen sulfide, spotted in the atmosphere of the exoplanet HD 189733 b, helps constrain how the planet formed.
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Magnetic Barriers Might Explain Mysterious Hot Jupiters
Hot Jupiters might end up very close to stars because a magnetic field halts their progress—and future observations could confirm the idea.
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A Magma Ocean Fuels This Exoplanet’s Atmosphere
The finding is an atmospheric first for astronomers but not for the planet.
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A Step Closer to Solving the Fermi Paradox
Finding evidence of complex life elsewhere in the Milky Way galaxy hinges on locating rocky planets with plate tectonics and a mixture of landmasses and oceans, new research suggests.
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Red-Light-Loving Bacteria Could Expand the Search for Life
Scientists are uncovering genes responsible for oxygenic photosynthesis in cyanobacteria to shift the search for potentially habitable worlds.