This planet of extragalactic origin was detected by a European team of astronomers
Over the last 15 years, astronomers have detected nearly 500 planets orbiting stars in our cosmic neighbourhood, but none outside our Milky Way has been confirmed.
Continue reading… “Planet from Another Galaxy Discovered!!!”
An international team of scientists, including several who are affiliated with UC Santa Barbara, has discovered a new planet the size of Jupiter. The finding is published in the March 18 issue of the journal Nature.
Continue reading… “First Temperate Exoplanet — Size of Jupiter — Discovered”
An international team led by Yale University has, for the first time, measured the mass of a type of supernova thought to belong to a unique subclass and confirmed that it surpasses what was believed to be an upper mass limit. Their findings, which appear online and will be published in an upcoming issue of the Astrophysical Journal, could affect the way cosmologists measure the expansion of the universe.
Continue reading… “Super Supernova: White Dwarf Star System Exceeds Mass Limit”
An international group of astrophysicists has determined that a massive planet outside our Solar System is being distorted and destroyed by its host star — a finding that helps explain the unexpectedly large size of the planet, WASP-12b.
Continue reading… “Torn Apart by Its Own Tides, Massive Planet Is on a ‘Death March’”
A binary pair of red stars, one giant one dwarf, has been discovered by a collaboration of astrophysicists from the University of Hertfordshire and The Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Continue reading… “Red Dwarf-Red Giant Binary Pair of Stars Found”
Astronomers have discovered the youngest extra-solar planet around a solar-type star, named BD+20 1790b.
Continue reading… “Youngest Extra-Solar Planet Discovered Around Solar-Type Star”
Astronomers have found a giant magnetic loop stretched outward from one of the stars making up the famous double-star system Algol. The scientists used an international collection of radio telescopes to discover the feature, which may help explain details of previous observations of the stellar system.
Continue reading… “Giant Magnetic Loop Sweeps Through Space Between Stellar Pairs”
By studying a triple planetary system that resembles a scaled-up version of our own Sun’s family of planets, astronomers have been able to obtain the first direct spectrum — the “chemical fingerprint” [1] — of a planet orbiting a distant star [2], thus bringing new insights into the planet’s formation and composition. The result represents a milestone in the search for life elsewhere in the Universe.
Continue reading… “Astronomers Capture First Direct Spectrum of an Exoplanet”
An international team of planet hunters has discovered as many as six low-mass planets around two nearby Sun-like stars, including two “super-Earths” with masses 5 and 7.5 times the mass of Earth. The researchers, led by Steven Vogt of the University of California, Santa Cruz, and Paul Butler of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, said the two “super-Earths” are the first ones found around Sun-like stars.
Continue reading… “First Super-Earths Discovered Orbiting Sun-Like Stars”
Dying, for stars, has just gotten more complicated.
Continue reading… “Theorists Propose a New Way to Shine And a New Kind of Star: ‘Electroweak’”
Solar wind generated by the sun is probably driven by a process involving powerful magnetic fields, according to a new study led by UCL (University College London) researchers based on the latest observations from the Hinode satellite.
Continue reading… “Solar Winds Triggered by Magnetic Fields”
Astrophysicists at the University of Warwick and Kiel University have discovered two earth sized bodies with oxygen rich atmospheres — however there is a bit of a disappointing snag for anyone looking for a potential home for alien life, or even a future home for ourselves, as they are not planets but are actually two unusual white dwarf stars.
