Scientists have located the coldest brown dwarf star ever observed, an important "missing link" among these celestial bodies that are half-planet, half-star, according to a study released Thursday. picked by AutumnLotus 4 months ago

Planet-seekers who have spotted 28 new planets orbiting other stars in the past year say Earth's solar system is far from unique and there could be billions of habitable planets. picked by AutumnLotus 1 year ago

Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg have discovered the youngest known extrasolar planet. Its host star is still surrounded by the disk of gas and dust from which it was only recently born. This discovery allows scientists to draw important conclusions about the timing of planet formation. picked by AutumnLotus 8 months ago

Chondritic meteorites have a similar chemical composition to the sun and are therefore reliable witnesses as to what the solar nebula, from which the planets formed, was composed of. This can be used to deduce what the Earth consists of chemically. However, ETH Zurich researchers have now discovered that strictly speaking this fundamental geological assumption is not true. picked by AutumnLotus 4 months ago

Through some of the very first scientific observations with the brand-new Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) in Arizona, astronomers has found that a recently discovered tiny companion galaxy to our Milky Way, named the Hercules Dwarf Galaxy, has truly exceptional properties: while basically all of its known peers in the realm of these tiny dwarf galaxies are rather round, this galaxy at a distance o... read full post picked by AutumnLotus 11 months ago

The new definition, proposed this week by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), basically says every round object orbiting the sun is a planet, unless it orbits another planet. Asteroid Ceres will become a planet. Pluto's moon Charon will become a planet, things could get really strange. picked by Jaxomlotus 2 years ago

Three rocks hurtling through space appear to be among our solar system's oldest objects. The ancient asteroids seem to have formed some 4.55 billion years ago, making them older than the oldest meteorites ever found on Earth. picked by AutumnLotus 5 months ago

One of the largest objects in the Kuiper Belt, a ring of icy bodies beyond Neptune, has finally gotten a name: Makemake, after a god in the culture of Easter Island. picked by AutumnLotus 1 month ago

A class of "failed" star called a brown dwarf emits beams of radiation that are thousands of times brighter than any released by the Sun. picked by AutumnLotus 1 year ago

A gay boy wishes for a planet full of Unicorns. This is the story of that planet picked by dork 1 year ago

The hottest planet ever discovered is charcoal black and makes even some stars seem cool. Scientists think the exoplanet absorbs nearly all the starlight that reaches its surface and then reradiates it back out into space as heat. picked by AutumnLotus 1 year ago

Water has been identified for the first time in the atmosphere of a planet outside the Solar System. picked by AutumnLotus 1 year ago

The fiery demise of a fifth rocky planet in our Solar System might have led to a flurry of asteroid impacts that pockmarked the Moon and Earth billions of years ago. picked by AutumnLotus 9 months ago

Science fiction may soon become science fact. Astronomers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory have recently concluded that the upcoming planet-finding mission, SIM PlanetQuest, would be able to detect an Earth-like planet around the star 40 Eridani, a planet familiar to "Star Trek" fans as "Vulcan." picked by AutumnLotus 1 year ago

A planet outside our solar system with a year roughly equal to Earth's has been discovered around a dying, red giant star. picked by AutumnLotus 1 year ago

"Astronomers on Wednesday announced they had spotted the first planet beyond the Solar System that has water, the precious ingredient for life." picked by deepchill 1 year ago

Astronomers with the Trans-atlantic Exoplanet Survey today announce the discovery of their third planet, TrES-3 in the constellation Hercules about 10 degrees west of Vega. The new planet was identified by astronomers looking for transiting planets — that is, planets that pass in front of their home star. picked by AutumnLotus 1 year ago

Astronomers have discovered the first known planet to survive its "red-giant" phase, a period when an aging star expands and engulfs bodies orbiting it. The discovery of the gas-giant planet three times the size of Jupiter offers a look at the future of our own solar system and what will happen to the Earth when the sun grows old and collapses. picked by AutumnLotus 11 months ago

A team of astronomers says it may have spotted the youngest planet ever found, boasting an age of less than 100,000 years old, and perhaps as young as 1600 years old. They say it bolsters a controversial theory that planets form very quickly, like stars – but other astronomers say the massive object may not be a planet at all but a 'failed' star, which explains its speedy birth. picked by AutumnLotus 5 months ago

The solar system's smallest planet has been shrinking at an unexpected rate, researchers announced on Thursday.

When NASA's Mariner 10 probe flew by Mercury in 1974 and 1975, it returned images of strange cliffs called 'scarps' that cut across all sorts of geological formations. That suggested that the planet's surface has contracted over time. picked by AutumnLotus 2 months ago