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  • TOP STORY


    Alien light forms

    NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has detected light emanating from a "super-Earth" planet beyond our solar system for the first time. While the planet is not habitable, the detection is a historic step toward the eventual search for signs of life on other planets.

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  • FEATURED MEDIA


    Flower power

    The flower you see in this animation isn’t NASA’s attempt to celebrate the coming of spring. It’s actually the latest design in a cutting-edge effort to take pictures of planets orbiting stars far from the sun.

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    Bounty of red dwarf worlds

    A new result from ESO’s HARPS planet finder shows that rocky planets not much bigger than Earth are very common in the habitable zones around faint red stars. The international team estimates that there are tens of billions of such planets in the Milky Way galaxy alone, and probably about one hundred in the Sun’s immediate neighborhood.

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    Steam sphere

    Observations by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have come up with a new class of planet, a waterworld enshrouded by a thick, steamy atmosphere. It's smaller than Uranus but larger than Earth.

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    Huge, but habitable?

    A newly-discovered super-Earth in a triple-star system could potentially be an Earth-like planet.

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  • INTERACTIVE


    Extreme Planet Makeover

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  • Spitzerdisco

    Alien light forms

  • Starshadeslide

    Flower power

  • Eso_planettop

    Bounty of red dwarf worlds

  • Hubbletop

    Steam sphere

  • 99

    Huge, but habitable?

  • Makeoverss

    Extreme Planet Makeover

NEWS


  • Spitzerdisco

    May 08, 2012

    Alien light forms

    NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has detected light emanating from a "super-Earth" planet beyond our solar system for the first time.

    › read article

  • Kepler

    April 04, 2012

    Exo-extension

    NASA's Kepler mission has been approved for extension through fiscal year 2016 based on a recommendation from the Agency’s Senior Review of its operating missions.

    › read article

  • Eso_planettop

    March 29, 2012

    Bounty of red dwarf worlds

    A new result from ESO’s HARPS planet finder shows that rocky planets not much bigger than Earth are very common in the habitable zones around faint red stars. The international team estimates that there are tens of billions of such planets in the Milky Way galaxy alone, and probably about one hundred in the Sun’s immediate neighbourhood.

    › read article

  • Hs-2012-13-a-large_web

    February 21, 2012

    NASA's Hubble reveals a new class of extrasolar planet

    Observations by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have come up with a new class of planet, a waterworld enshrouded by a thick, steamy atmosphere. It's smaller than Uranus but larger than Earth.

    › read article

  • 120202-space-superearth-715a.grid-10x2

    February 02, 2012

    Huge, but habitable?

    A newly-discovered super-Earth in a triple-star system could potentially be an Earth-like planet.

    › read article

  • Pia15264-640

    January 26, 2012

    Eleven on deck

    Kepler discovers 26 planets in 11 new solar systems.

    › read article

  • Pia15257

    January 11, 2012

    Tiny trio

    Astronomers using data from NASA's Kepler mission have discovered the three smallest planets yet detected orbiting a star beyond our sun.

    › read article

  • Hs-2012-07-a-xlarge_web

    January 11, 2012

    Plenty of planets

    Our Milky Way galaxy contains, on average, a minimum of one planet for every star, according to a new statistical study.

    › read article

  • Kepler-img

    January 01, 2012

    Kepler's big year

    2011 showed NASA's Kepler mission finding its stride. 2012 could be even bigger.

    › read article

  • 611931main_kepler20e_full

    December 20, 2011

    Sisters in size

    NASA's Kepler mission has discovered the first Earth-size planets orbiting a sun-like star outside our solar system.

    › read article
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The flower you see in this picture isn’t NASA’s attempt to celebrate the coming of spring. It’s actually the lat...

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