Tag Archives: exoplanets

Astronomers have a new theory about planetary formation, and it revolves around one mysterious concept: interstellar visitors. No, not little green men, but rather deep-space wanderers like the peculiar comet 3I/ATLAS discovered this summer. A new study presented by professor Susanne Pfalzner of Forschungszentrum Jülich at the Joint Meeting of the Europlanet Science Congress and the Division of Planetary Sciences …

It might sound hard to believe, but NASA’s exoplanet count just reached 6,000 — and that’s with only about 30 years of hunting worlds beyond our solar system. In fact, only three years ago, that figure was at 5,000. At least at face value, the rate of discovery appears to be exponential — which is good, because, theoretically, there should …

Cosmic dust particles that give birth to planets around young stars have for the first time been found forming — the James Webb Space Telescope has witnessed the creation of these tiny planetary building blocks around a dead star. “This discovery is a big step forward in understanding how the basic materials of planets come together,” Mikako Matsuura of Cardiff …

Scientists have developed a better model to understand “steam worlds,” which are planets smaller than Neptune and larger than Earth that are too hot to have liquid water at their surface and thus have atmospheres filled with water vapor. Though steam worlds are unlikely to harbor life, modeling them more precisely could help scientists better comprehend ocean planets better, which …

When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. (Main) An illustration of a planetary system developing around a free-floating rogue planet (Inset) the JWST. | Credit: Midjourney Our parochial view of planets orbiting a central star — so familiar because it is the layout seen in the solar system — could …

Our parochial view of planets orbiting a central star — so familiar because it is the layout seen in the solar system — could be irrevocably shattered by new research that suggests giant, free-floating planets could form their own planetary systems. If true, that also means planetary systems may exist with no parent star. These rogue planetary systems would also …