Space / New Planets

#79: Untethered Planets May Outnumber Stars


The hunt for exoplanets takes another turn for the surprising. 12.27.2011

#4: New-planet Boom Faces a Budget Bust

You might expect think NASA would race to build on the success of the Kepler telescope. Instead, it is coming dangerously close to abandoning the search for other worlds. 12.27.2011

The Computer Program That Draws Realistic Exoplanets

Accurate, pretty, and faster than any artist 12.19.2011

Cosmic Eye Exam Shows Jaw-Dropping Accuracy of Webb Telescope's Optics

The scope's main mirror must hold its shape even down to temperatures near absolute zero. 09.03.2011

NASA's Inspiring, Enlightening, and Successful Search for New Earths

The Kepler space telescope, NASA’s first mission 
dedicated to the 
search for planets 
beyond our 
solar system, has 
produced a 
gusher of strange 
new worlds. 
If astronomers are 
right, many of them will prove to be habitable.
 08.29.2011

The Planets That Missed the Memo About How to Orbit

Some planets revolve at crazy angles or even in the "wrong" direction around their stars. Stellar pinball may be at work. 01.28.2011

Is Anybody Out There?

As astronomers uncover a bewildering array of planets orbiting distant stars, four top researchers in the field reveal their plans to study these exotic worlds and search for signs that we are not alone in the universe. 01.27.2011

11 Space Missions That Will Make Headlines in 2011

This year, space exploration will bring news of expeditions to distant planets, the quest for life-friendly star systems, and the bold efforts of commercial space companies. Here's a preview of what to look forward to. 01.06.2011

The Alien Seekers of SETI Are Just Getting Started

For 50 years a devoted group of scientists has been listening for signals from intelligent life. Despite all the dead air, the true believers say the odds of success are now better than ever. 01.03.2011

The 100 Top Science Stories of 2010

Every year DISCOVER sorts through the scientific accomplishments of the past 12 months, and assembles a list of the coolest experiments, most brilliant discoveries, and most world-changing events. As you page through the countdown to the #1 science story, we think you'll come to the same conclusion we did: 2010 was quite a year. 12.16.2010

How to Settle, Once and for All, the Whole "What's a Planet?" Debate

Defining things is a natural impulse, but it often doesn't fit the natural world. 12.08.2010

Finding Life on Other Planets Will Reveal How Common Life Is Across the Universe

Astronomer Debra Fischer on her hopes for science over the next 30 years 09.14.2010

Astronomers Discover 2 Shortcuts for Locating Earth-Like Planets

Stars orbited by planets are a little bit different than other stars, and scientists can use that to quickly home in on new planets. 03.23.2010

#8: Earth-like Worlds Come Into View

Newly discovered planets are becoming ever smaller, lighter, and more familiar to us earthlings. 01.25.2010

A Scientist's Guide to Finding Alien Life: Where, When, and in What Universe

A variety of new findings point to the "habitable zones" where we're likely to find extraterrestrials. 05.11.2009

The Inspiring Boom in "Super-Earths"

At last we are finding rocky planets like our own. But some are pretty weird: The smallest may have a mineral-vapor atmosphere that condenses as lava rain or rock snow. 05.08.2009

The Best New Science Books

Neil deGrasse Tyson, Area 51, modern life vs human nature, and more 02.20.2009

Are You There, E.T.? It's Me, Maggie

Astrobiologist Maggie Turnbull gets paid by NASA to search for alien life. 02.03.2009

A Virtual Tour of 8 Strange Exoplanets

Astronomers have recently found hundreds of new planets. Here are what some of them might look like. 01.23.2009

The Man Who Made Stars and Planets

Alan Boss has spent a career predicting how stars and planets form—and has often been right. 01.12.2009

Visual Science: A (Dormant) Volcano Is a Great Place to Look at the Sky

Hawaii's Mauna Kea houses the world’s largest astronomical observatory. 01.09.2009

Beyond the Nine Planets

We are only beginning to discover how vast and strange our solar system truly is. 01.06.2009

#27: Astronomers Spy the Youngest Planet Ever Found

The latest, newest protoplanet is a "dusty, rocky, gaseous lump." 12.17.2008

20 Best Brains Under 40

Young innovators are changing everything from theoretical mathematics to cancer therapy. 11.20.2008

How Long Until We Find a Second Earth?

Researchers are racing to find the first planet that might support life as we know it. 10.10.2008

Inside the Search for Extraterrestrial Life

It starts with water and ends with intelligent aliens—hopefully. 12.25.2007

3. Planetpalooza

A new crop of alien planets raises the bar on bizarre. 12.12.2007

Scientist of the Year: David Charbonneau

His research heats up the search for alien life—and finds some amazing planets along the way. 12.06.2007

Fat times for Planet Hunters

New-found worlds are becoming bigger, hotter, and stranger. 11.27.2007

The Granddaddy of Space Colonization?

Fifty years after Sputnik, Burt Rutan leads a new space race. 10.08.2007

Pluto Gets Demoted. Again.

Newly discovered Eris is bigger and heavier than the spurned planet. 08.16.2007

Map: Alien Weather Report

A planet with supersonic winds, where a day lasts a year 07.16.2007

The Hunt for Other Earths Heats Up

We could hit the jackpot by 2010. 04.10.2007

The Man Who Finds Planets

Give Caltech astronomer Mike Brown a telescope and there's no telling what he might discover out there 05.27.2006

The Year in Science: Astronomy

Planet Xena, cosmic evolution, gamma ray bursts, and more. 01.08.2006

A Planet is Born

09.30.2004

Astronomy

01.02.2004

Space Scientist: Geoff Marcy and Paul Butler

The Astronomers Who Proved Carl Sagan Correct 11.09.2003

Can We Find Another Earth?

NASA is betting that we can, and a team of Princeton astronomers has a clever design for a telescope that could do it within 20 years 03.01.2002

Works in Progress

When it's a planet that's not a planet 01.01.2002

Planets in Peril

08.01.2001

Wonder Worlds

12.01.2000

07.01.2000

A Field Guide to the New Planets

Amazing Worlds beyond our own Solar System 03.01.2000

Planet Poseur?

Is it the first planet seen outside our solar system, or something completely different? 08.01.1998

Planet Hatchery

12.01.1997

A Capella

03.01.1996

Hi-ho, Hi-ho

Brown dwarfs are the missing link between normal stars and planets. 01.01.1996

Is Anyone Out There?

Surely, out of the countless spheres in the universe, one harbors something that can say hello. 11.01.1992

Forbidden Planets

Astronomers have looked long and hard for planets outside the solar system. At last their search may have paid off. 04.01.1992