#extrasolar planets


# space    

this weird star system is, literally, flipping awesome

A binary system observed by ALMA isn't wonky, it's the first example of an anomaly we only thought was possible until we saw it with our own eyes: a polar protoplanetary disk.
this weird star system is, literally, flipping awesome

the amazing disappearing habitable world?

The most likely candidate for alien life outside out solar system, Gliese 581g, might not really exist.
the amazing disappearing habitable world?

pardon me, but your hot spot is on sideways

An extrasolar Hot Jupiter called Upsilon Andromedae b has a hot spot in one of the strangest and most awkward possible places in its atmosphere and scientists aren't quite sure why.
pardon me, but your hot spot is on sideways

expanding the search for terrestrial planets

The best way to find Earth-sized planets is watching them pass between a telescope and their parent star. And we might get a telescope designed to spot precisely that.
expanding the search for terrestrial planets

hey universe, just try to censor this!

We've seen gas giants orbiting so close to their stars, their atmospheres are being stripped off. COROT-7b may show us what happens at the end of that process.
hey universe, just try to censor this!

# space    

meet the backwards planet

One of the weirdest extrasolar planets we've found so far is a superheated puffball that orbits its star in the wrong direction.
meet the backwards planet

# space    

you just know that's gonna leave a mark…

We knew planetary collisions should happen relatively often in young solar systems. Now we have hard evidence of one such an event.
you just know that's gonna leave a mark…

# space    

our strange stellar neighbors…

Is VB 10 a planet-sized star, or is VB 10a a star-sized planet? One of our closest stellar neighbors poses a small but interesting challenge to cosmic taxonomy.
our strange stellar neighbors…

# space    

todays forecast: solar wind and 4,000F

Welcome to the truly hellish world of WASP-12b, a planet being eaten by its star.
todays forecast: solar wind and 4,000F