News by Subject Space & Planetary

New detailed observations with NSF's NOIRLab facilities reveal a young exoplanet, orbiting a young star in the Hyades cluster, that is unusually dense for its size and age. Weighing in at 25 Earth-masses, and slightly smaller than Neptune, this exoplanet's existence is at odds with the predictions of leading planet formation theories.

For a long time, researchers have believed that there is not much of interest going on in the Sun during the passive period, therefore not worth studying. Now this assumption is showed to be false by Juha Kallunki, Merja Tornikoski and Irene Björklund, researchers at Metsähovi Radio Observatory, in their peer-reviewed research article published in Solar Physics. This is the first time that astronomers are systematically studying the phenomena of the solar minimum.

The journal Nature Communications today is publishing the discovery of a new type of stars, very rich in phosphorus, which could help to explain the origin of this chemical element in our Galaxy. This achievement has been made by astronomers of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) and researchers in computer science from the Centre for Research in Information and Communication Technology (CITIC) at the University of La Coruña (Galicia).

In a series of simulations, an international team of researchers determined that some neutron star collisions not only produce gravitational waves, but also electromagnetic radiation that should be detectable on Earth.

Planet-forming environments can be much more complex and chaotic than previously expected. This is evidenced by a new image of the star RU Lup, made with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA).

Using data from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO, scientists have developed a new model that successfully predicted seven of the Sun's biggest flares from the last solar cycle, out of a set of nine. With more development, the model could be used to one day inform forecasts of these intense bursts of solar radiation.

A new study shows other stars could have as many as seven Earth-like planets in the absence of a gas giant like Jupiter.

Based on ALMA observations and a theoretical follow-up study, scientists suggest that a neutron star might be hiding deep inside the remains of Supernova 1987A.

Stars viewed from a place called Dome A in Antarctica can finally be seen without their twinkle -- which means in much greater detail.

Aaron Lojewski, who leads aurora sightseeing tours in Alaska, was lucky enough to photograph a "eruption" of brilliant pink light in the night skies one night in February. The same perturbations of the Earth's magnetic field that lit up the sky for Lojewski's camera were also captured by seismometers on the ground, a team of researchers reports in the journal Seismological Research Letters.