NAUTILUS - Hold a grain of sand up to the night sky at arm’s length. There are thousands of galaxies in that miniscule fraction of the heavens. Galaxies like ours hold hundreds of billions of stars—a good portion of which host planets. And a number of these are in the “habitable zone,” that just-right distance...
SPACE.COM - A new catalog of 126 worlds beyond the solar system contains a cornucopia of newly discovered planets — some have extreme and exotic natures, but others could potentially support life as we know it. The catalog's mix of planets is further evidence of the wide and wild variety of worlds beyond our cosmic...
GIZMODO - Do we live in an unusual star system? Astronomers have been trying to figure out if the Solar System is unique compared to other stars and their orbiting planets, and they just took a major step towards answering the longstanding cosmic mystery. An international team of planet-hunting astronomers spent three years analyzing thousands...
ZME SCIENCE - A research team led by University of California Riverside researchers has unveiled a new member of the HD 104067 star system. Located approximately 66 light years from Earth, this is one of the hottest solar systems out there — quite literally. The newly identified fiery planet, designated TOI-6713.01, exhibits conditions so extreme...
LIVE SCIENCE - A newly discovered planet in a faraway star system appears to be erupting with so many volcanoes, it glows a fiery red when seen from space. No planet like this has ever been observed before, researchers say, and follow-up observations will be required to confirm the strange world's existence. The newfound planet...
NEWSWEEK - A roiling-hot exoplanet billions of miles away has been discovered, dotted with so many volcanos that it would visibly glow in the darkness of space. This planet, named TOI-6713.01, orbits a star situated around 66 light-years away from our solar system and is a rocky world around 30 percent larger than Earth, according...
COSMOS MAGAZINE - A new paper argues that the search for life outside our planet could be aided by looking in an unexpected place: the extremely hot, toxic planet Venus. Venus is uninhabitable. It’s like our planet’s evil twin, with a diameter only 5% smaller than Earth’s. But the average surface temperature on Venus is...
EARTH.COM - Despite its extreme conditions, featuring surface temperatures that can melt lead, volcanoes that spew lava, and thick clouds of sulfuric acid, Venus provides invaluable insights into the search for life on other planets, according to a new study from UC Riverside. “We often assume that Earth is the model of habitability, but if...
FORBES - To paraphrase Winston Churchill, our sister planet Venus remains a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma. Remarkably similar in size, mass, and bulk makeup, today, Earth and Venus couldn't be more different. Earth is an ecological utopia while Venus is a poster child for planetary desolation. The conventional view is that...
UNIVERSE TODAY - Can tidal forces cause an exoplanet’s surface to radiate heat? This is what a recent study accepted to The Astronomical Journal hopes to address as a team of international researchers used data collected from ground-based instruments to confirm the existence of a second exoplanet residing within the exoplanetary system, HD 104067, along...