Exoplanets

Cloud City, as seen in the Lego Star Wars series. Copyright: Disney XD / Getty Images. Used with permission.

How realistic are Star Wars planets?

The NEID instrument, mounted on the 3.5-meter WIYN telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. Credit: NSF's National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory/KPNO/NSF/AURA

Interview How NASA-funded NEID instrument will weigh exoplanets

An artist's rendering of hot Jupiter exoplanet KELT-9b, the hottest known exoplanet. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Hottest exoplanet discovered causes molecular hydrogen meltdown

What type of life could there be on an exoplanet? Credit: MPRIV/iStock/Getty Images

Could an exoplanet’s atmosphere indicate the presence of life?

Willy Benz, Principal Investigator of the CHEOPS spacecraft. Credit: SPACE/UNIBE/Alessandro Della Bella

Interview How ESA's CHEOPS mission will study exoplanets

Artist's impression of lightning storms on Jupiter. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/JunoCam

Could exoplanets host a global electric current?

An artist's concept showing ARIEL in orbit. Credit: ESA/STFC RAL Space/UCL/Europlanet-Science Office

NASA’s CASE instrument added to ESA’s ARIEL exoplanet mission

A 2D surface map of Earth, treated as a proxy exoplanet, shows the continents in green and seas in blue. Credit: Steng Fan

Is it possible to make a map of an exoplanet?

The Sun shows us how sunspots appear dark against a star. Credit: SOHO (ESA & NASA)

Observing spots on distant stars

Dr Angelos Tsiaras of University College London.

Interview Angelos Tsiaras discusses exoplanet K2-18b and the search for water in the Universe

Swiss astronomer Didier Queloz, one of three winners of the Nobel Prize in Physics 2019. Credit: ISABEL INFANTES/AFP via Getty Images)

Nobel Prize winner Didier Queloz on the hunt for exoplanets

Dead or alive: the study of isotopes in an exoplanet’s atmosphere gives clues about its habitability. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Does oxygen on an exoplanet indicate an Earth-like world?

Can an exomoon make plants grow on tidally-locked exoplanets around dim stars? Credit: NASA/ESA and G. Bacon (STScI), Elen11/iStock/Getty images

Can an exomoon make plants grow?

An artist’s impression showing exoplanet K2-18b, its host star and an accompanying planet in this system. Credit: ESA/Hubble, M. Kornmesser

Water detected on potentially ‘habitable’ exoplanet

Carbon dioxide released from hot tectonic plates beneath the sea could affect a water world’s climate. Credit: NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech/ NASA

Could water-rich exoplanets experience extreme cooling?