http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/space_time/extrasolar_planets/ Extrasolar Planet News. Astronomers discover extrasolar planets in a nearby star system. Could extrasolar planets support life? Images, full-text articles. Free. en-us Thu, 12 Nov 2009 05:05:01 EST Thu, 12 Nov 2009 05:05:01 EST 60 http://www.sciencedaily.com/images/logosmall.gif http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/space_time/extrasolar_planets/ For more science articles, visit ScienceDaily. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091111130944.htm A ground-breaking census of 500 stars, 70 of which are known to host planets, has successfully linked the long-standing "lithium mystery" observed in the Sun to the presence of planetary systems. Using ESO's successful HARPS spectrograph, a team of astronomers has found that sun-like stars that host planets have destroyed their lithium much more efficiently than "planet-free" stars. Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091111130944.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091108214924.htm Before our planets found their way to the stable orbits they circle in today, they wiggled and jostled about like unsettled children. Now, NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has found a young star with evidence for the same kind of orbital hyperactivity. Young planets circling the star are thought to be disturbing smaller comet-like bodies, causing them to collide and kick up a huge halo of dust. Mon, 09 Nov 2009 11:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091108214924.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091106104413.htm The operations of the CoRoT mission has been extended for three additional years, until 31 March 2013. Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091106104413.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090709095427.htm Galileo knew he had discovered a new planet in 1613, 234 years before its official discovery date, according to a new theory. Sat, 24 Oct 2009 17:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090709095427.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091021142925.htm Peering far beyond our solar system, NASA researchers have detected the basic chemistry for life in a second hot gas planet, advancing astronomers toward the goal of being able to characterize planets where life could exist. The planet is not habitable but it has the same chemistry that, if found around a rocky planet in the future, could indicate the presence of life. Wed, 21 Oct 2009 17:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091021142925.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091019105304.htm Astronomers are reporting the incredible discovery of some 32 new exoplanets, using the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher, better known as HARPS -- the spectrograph of the European Southern Observatory's 3.6-meter telescope. The result increases the number of known low-mass planets by an impressive 30 percent. Mon, 19 Oct 2009 11:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091019105304.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091006122336.htm New research based on 3-D simulations explains why dirty stars -- those with a high abundance of heavy elements, or high metallicity -- tend to have accompanying solar systems. Tue, 06 Oct 2009 20:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091006122336.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/09/090930165038.htm Tidally locked with its star and orbiting very close to it, the exoplanet Corot-7b is hot enough to melt rock on its star-facing side. Its atmosphere consists of the components of silicate rocks in gaseous form and, simulation suggests, periodically rains pebbles or grains of sand onto the molten surface below. Thu, 01 Oct 2009 11:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/09/090930165038.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/09/090923142121.htm Astronomers have witnessed odd behavior around a young star. Something, perhaps another star or a planet, appears to be pushing a clump of planet-forming material around. The observations, made with NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, offer a rare look into the early stages of planet formation. Thu, 24 Sep 2009 20:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/09/090923142121.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/09/090918101720.htm Scientists at a new interdisciplinary research institute in Austria are working to uncover how life might evolve with “exotic” biochemistry and solvents, such as sulphuric acid instead of water. Mon, 21 Sep 2009 20:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/09/090918101720.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/09/090916090318.htm The longest set of HARPS measurements ever made has firmly established the nature of the smallest and fastest-orbiting exoplanet known, CoRoT-7b, revealing its mass as five times that of Earth's. Combined with CoRoT-7b's known radius, less than twice Earth's, this tells us that the exoplanet's density is quite similar to the Earth's, suggesting a solid, rocky world. The extensive dataset also reveals the presence of another so-called super-Earth in this alien solar system. Wed, 16 Sep 2009 11:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/09/090916090318.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/09/090903064925.htm Since the launch of the NASA Kepler Mission earlier this year, astronomers have been keenly awaiting the first detection of an Earth-like planet around another star. Now, in an echo of science fiction movies a team of scientists thinks that they may even find habitable ‘exomoons,’ too. Thu, 03 Sep 2009 14:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/09/090903064925.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090827134159.htm A team of scientists has found a new planet which orbits the wrong way around its host star. The planet, named WASP-17, and orbiting a star 1000 light years away, was found by the UK's WASP project in collaboration with Geneva Observatory. The discovery casts new light on how planetary systems form and evolve. Fri, 28 Aug 2009 08:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090827134159.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090827132901.htm A planet has been discovered with ten times the mass of Jupiter, but which orbits its star in less than one Earth-day. Thu, 27 Aug 2009 17:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090827132901.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090805164917.htm NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has taken its first shots of the cosmos since warming up and starting its second career. The infrared telescope ran out of coolant on May 15, 2009, more than five-and-half-years after launch, and has since warmed to a still-frosty 30 Kelvin (about minus 406 Fahrenheit). New images demonstrate that the observatory remains a powerful tool for probing the dusty universe. Thu, 20 Aug 2009 17:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090805164917.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090810162109.htm One of the hottest topics in astronomy involves the study of the conditions favorable for the development and survival of primordial life. New research shows that compared to middle-aged stars like the Sun, newly formed stars spin faster generating strong magnetic fields that result in emission of more intense levels of radiation -- all of which could wreak havoc on budding atmospheres and have a dramatic effect on the development of life forms. Thu, 13 Aug 2009 05:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090810162109.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090806184434.htm The first results are in from the Kepler orbiting observatory, the world's most powerful planet-searching telescope, and they show that the instrument should have no trouble detecting "alien Earths" -- planets that are about the size of our own. Fri, 07 Aug 2009 11:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090806184434.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090701103008.htm Astronomers have found a binary star-disk system in which each star is surrounded by the kind of dust disk that is frequently the precursor of a planetary system. Thu, 02 Jul 2009 20:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090701103008.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090610133557.htm Astronomers have confirmed an effective way to search the atmospheres of planets for signs of life, vastly improving our chances of finding alien life outside our solar system. Fri, 12 Jun 2009 08:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090610133557.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090610154459.htm Astronomers have announced new images that clearly reveal the presence of a rotating molecular disk orbiting the young binary star system V4046 Sagittarii. The SMA images provide an unusually vivid snapshot of the process of formation of giant planets, comets, and Pluto-like bodies. The results also confirm that such objects may just as easily form around double stars as around single stars like our Sun. Thu, 11 Jun 2009 14:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090610154459.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090610124831.htm New calculations indicate that, in nearby star systems, tidal forces exerted on planets by their parent star's gravity could limit what is regarded as a star's habitable zone and change the criteria for planets where life could potentially take root. Thu, 11 Jun 2009 14:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090610124831.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090528141509.htm A long-proposed tool for hunting planets has netted its first catch -- a Jupiter-like planet orbiting one of the smallest stars known. The technique, called astrometry, was first attempted 50 years ago to search for planets outside our solar system, called exoplanets. It involves measuring the precise motions of a star on the sky as an unseen planet tugs the star back and forth. Fri, 29 May 2009 11:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090528141509.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090526093944.htm A team of astronomers and astrobiologists has devised a technique to tell whether small Earth-like planets orbiting other suns harbor liquid water, which in turn could tell whether they might be able to support life. Tue, 26 May 2009 14:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090526093944.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090507164356.htm A new way of reading light will sharpen the view of planets around other stars. Researchers have created an "astro-comb" to help astronomers detect lighter planets, more like Earth, around distant stars. Tue, 12 May 2009 20:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090507164356.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090427193242.htm Astronomers have found hundreds of extrasolar planets in the last two decades, and new research indicates they might have found even more except for one thing -- some planets have fallen into their stars and simply no longer exist. Sun, 03 May 2009 17:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090427193242.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090421080508.htm Scientists have found that giant exoplanets orbiting very close to their stars could lose a quarter of their mass during their lifetime. They found that planets that orbit closer than 2% of an Astronomical Unit (AU), the distance between the Earth and the Sun, may lose their atmospheres completely, leaving just their core. Mon, 27 Apr 2009 17:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090421080508.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090419205244.htm Astronomers have announced plans to build an ultra-stable, high-precision spectrograph for the Science and Technology Facilities Council's 4.2-m William Herschel Telescope in an effort to discover habitable Earth-like planets around other stars. Sun, 26 Apr 2009 17:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090419205244.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090421080518.htm Student astronomers in England have discovered that an exotic world passes directly in front of the Sun-like star it orbits, revealing for the first time that it is about the same size as Jupiter. Wed, 22 Apr 2009 14:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090421080518.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090421080502.htm Exoplanet researchers have discovered the lightest exoplanet found so far. The planet, "e", in the famous system Gliese 581, is only about twice the mass of our Earth. The team also refined the orbit of the planet Gliese 581 d, first discovered in 2007, placing it well within the habitable zone, where liquid water oceans could exist. These amazing discoveries are the outcome of more than four years of observations using the most successful low-mass-exoplanet hunter in the world, the HARPS spectrograph attached to the 3.6-metre ESO telescope at La Silla, Chile. Tue, 21 Apr 2009 11:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090421080502.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090419211631.htm Astronomers have found that at least 1 in 100 white dwarf stars show evidence of orbiting asteroids and rocky planets, suggesting these objects once hosted solar systems similar to our own. Mon, 20 Apr 2009 14:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090419211631.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090416131257.htm NASA's Kepler mission has taken its first images of the star-rich sky where it will soon begin hunting for planets like Earth. Fri, 17 Apr 2009 08:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090416131257.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090401183529.htm A powerful, newly refined image-processing technique may allow astronomers to discover extrasolar planets that are possibly lurking in over a decade's worth of Hubble Space Telescope archival data. Thu, 02 Apr 2009 11:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090401183529.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090320131521.htm Does a twin Earth exist somewhere in our galaxy? Astronomers are getting closer and closer to finding an Earth-sized planet in an Earth-like orbit. NASA's Kepler spacecraft just launched to find such worlds. Once the search succeeds, the next questions driving research will be: Is that planet habitable? Does it have an Earth-like atmosphere? Answering those questions will not be easy. Sat, 21 Mar 2009 11:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090320131521.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090203110324.htm COROT has found the smallest terrestrial planet ever detected outside the Solar System. The amazing planet is less than twice the size of Earth and orbits a Sun-like star. Its temperature is so high that it is possibly covered in lava or water vapor. Wed, 04 Feb 2009 11:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090203110324.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090128132639.htm Astronomers have observed the intense heating of a distant planet as it swung close to its parent star, providing important clues to the atmospheric properties of the planet. The observations enabled astronomers to generate realistic images of the planet by feeding the data into computer simulations of the planet's atmosphere. Thu, 29 Jan 2009 11:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090128132639.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090121123043.htm Astronomers have discovered a planet somewhat larger and more massive than Neptune orbiting a star 120 light-years from Earth. While Neptune has a diameter 3.8 times that of Earth and a mass 17 times Earth's, the new world (named HAT-P-11b) is 4.7 times the size of Earth and has 25 Earth masses. Thu, 22 Jan 2009 11:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090121123043.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090114160540.htm Two independent groups have simultaneously made the first-ever ground-based detection of extrasolar planets thermal emissions. Until now, virtually everything known about atmospheres of planets orbiting other stars in the Milky Way has come from space-based observations. These two independent results are very interesting for astronomers and planetary scientists because they allow a direct probe of the temperature of these planetary atmospheres, and because they show that such measurements can be made from ground-based observatories, and not only when using space telescopes. Thu, 15 Jan 2009 08:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090114160540.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090111140432.htm Astronomers have turned to an unexpected place to study the evolution of planets -- dead stars. Observations made with NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope reveal six dead "white dwarf" stars littered with the remains of shredded asteroids. This might sound pretty bleak, but it turns out the chewed-up asteroids are teaching astronomers about the building materials of planets around other stars. Mon, 12 Jan 2009 08:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090111140432.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090105131214.htm The planet Jupiter gained weight in a hurry during its infancy. It had to, since the material from which it formed probably disappeared in just a few million years, according to a new study of planet formation around young stars. Sun, 11 Jan 2009 08:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090105131214.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090106140143.htm Brown dwarfs, objects that are less massive than stars but larger than planets, just got more elusive, based on a study of 233 nearby multiple-star systems by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. Hubble found only two brown dwarfs as companions to normal stars. This means the so-called "brown dwarf desert" (the absence of brown dwarfs around solar-type stars) extends to the smallest stars in the universe. Fri, 09 Jan 2009 11:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090106140143.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090105120322.htm Life on a planet ruled by two suns might be a little complicated. Two sunrises, two sunsets. Twice the radiation field. Astronomers suggest that planets may easily form around certain types of twin star systems. A disk of molecules discovered orbiting a pair of twin young suns in the constellation Sagittarius strongly suggests that many such binary systems also host planets. Fri, 09 Jan 2009 08:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090105120322.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081222163112.htm Astronomers recently observed a star analogous to the young Sun at an age of approximately 500 million years, named CoRoTExo-2a. This star is accompanied by a giant planet orbiting around it in only 1.7 days. Tue, 23 Dec 2008 08:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081222163112.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081211112223.htm A team of astronomers has used a new technique to measure the precise size of a planet around a distant star. They used a camera so sensitive that it could detect the passage of a moth in front of a lit window from a distance of 1,000 miles. Wed, 17 Dec 2008 20:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081211112223.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081215091011.htm Scientists are expanding the search for extraterrestrial life -- and they've set their sights on some very unearthly planets. Cold 'super-Earths' -- giant, "snowball" planets that astronomers have spied on the outskirts of faraway solar systems -- could potentially support some kind of life, they have found. Such planets are plentiful; experts estimate that one-third of all solar systems contain super-Earths. Tue, 16 Dec 2008 23:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081215091011.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081212081540.htm Astronomers have identified a white dwarf that is among the hottest stars known so far, with a temperature of 200,000 K at its surface. It is so hot that its photosphere exhibits emission lines in the ultraviolet spectrum, a phenomenon that has never been seen before. Mon, 15 Dec 2008 02:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081212081540.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081211112309.htm Moons outside our Solar System with the potential to support life have just become much easier to detect. Astronomers have found that such moons can be revealed by looking at wobbles in the velocity of the planets they orbit. Sat, 13 Dec 2008 08:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081211112309.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081209144923.htm NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has discovered carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of a planet orbiting another star. This breakthrough is an important step toward finding chemical biotracers of extraterrestrial life. Tue, 09 Dec 2008 20:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081209144923.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081204074652.htm Three undergraduate students, from Leiden University in the Netherlands, have discovered an extrasolar planet. The extraordinary find, which turned up during their research project, is about five times as massive as Jupiter. This is also the first planet discovered orbiting a fast-rotating hot star. Thu, 04 Dec 2008 17:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081204074652.htm