Topic description and stories

On a massive planet around a nearby star, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has detected a stratosphere, one of the primary layers of the atmospheres of Earth and other planets in our solar system.

‘Sunscreen’ layer detected on distant planet

12 Jun 2015

On a blazing-hot exoplanet known as WASP-33b, a team of astronomers including researchers from the University of Cambridge has detected a...

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Left: Image of HD 115600 showing a bright debris ring viewed nearly edge-on and located just beyond a Pluto-like distance to the star. Right: A model of the HD 115600 debris ring on the same scale.

Discovery shows what the solar system looked like as a ‘toddler’

27 May 2015

Astronomers have discovered a disc of planetary debris surrounding a young sun-like star that shares remarkable similarities with the Kuiper Belt...

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Artist’s impression of super-Earth 55 Cancri e, showing a hot partially-molten surface of the planet before and after possible volcanic activity on the day side.

Astronomers find first evidence of changing conditions on a super Earth

05 May 2015

Astronomers have detected wildly changing temperatures on a super Earth – the first time any atmospheric variability has been observed on a rocky...

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Mapping the weather on WASP-43b

09 Oct 2014

Two new studies have been used to make the most detailed weather map for a planet outside the solar system, where typical daytime highs reach 1500...

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A Neptune-size planet with a clear atmosphere is shown crossing in front of its star in this artist's depiction

Clear skies on exo-Neptune

24 Sep 2014

Smallest exoplanet ever found to have water vapour

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Highest-precision measurement of water in planet outside the solar system

24 Jul 2014

The discovery of water vapour in the atmospheres of three exoplanets includes the most precise measurement of any chemical in a planet outside the...

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At the outer fringes of the system, the gravitational influence of a hypothetical giant planet (bottom left) captures comets into a dense, massive swarm (right) where frequent collisions occur.

Galactic gas caused by colliding comets suggests mystery ‘shepherd’ exoplanet

06 Mar 2014

Latest research has uncovered a massive clump of carbon monoxide in a young solar system. The gas is the result of near constant collisions of icy...

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Artist impression of a rocky and water-rich asteroid being torn apart by the gravity of the white dwarf star GD 61.

Watery asteroid in dying star points to habitable exoplanets

10 Oct 2013

Latest research on rocky relics suggests a distant planetary system, now past its “death throes”, had very similar water ‘delivery system’ to our own...

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Beyond the blinding starlight

11 Mar 2013

Study reveals chemical composites of exoplanet atmospheres 128 light years away. Scientists say techniques will “one day provide evidence of life...

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Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC 6217

Are we ready to meet ET?

05 Mar 2013

Once only science fiction, astronomers are now finding hundreds of planetary systems beyond our own. Given recent discoveries through space...

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This artist's impression shows a gas-giant exoplanet transiting across the face of its star. Infrared analysis by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.

World-renowned astrophysicist to join Cavendish Laboratory

31 Oct 2012

New professor is one of the joint discoverers of a planet orbiting a normal star beyond the Solar System.

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