The word “big” doesn’t mean much once you leave Earth. Our planet feels massive until you stack it next to Jupiter. Jupiter ...

Astronomers have discovered a new class of exoplanet that defies traditional categories of planetary classification. In a ...

Extreme exomoons with tidal heating and thick, hydrogen-rich atmospheres may be able to create billions of years of potentially habitable surface conditions.

Something is hiding inside Kepler-51d, and it’s doing a remarkably good job of it. About 2,615 light-years away in the ...

“Project Hail Mary,” the movie adaptation to Andy Weir’s 2021 novel about a science teacher attempting to save the Earth from sun-eating microbes, was released in March 2026 to stellar ratings from ...

Talk about a hot mess. Scientists have uncovered a hellish “lava world” where temperatures soar to a blistering 2,700 degrees Fahrenheit — hot enough to melt rock into a churning ocean of magma and ...

Kepler-51d is a giant, ultra-light “super-puff” planet wrapped in an unusually thick haze that’s blocking scientists from ...

It’s “common knowledge”—and the scare quotes should be a warning—that the sun is an average star.

Greek mythology has given a name to a great many objects in our solar system. But perhaps one of the least well understood ...

A thick layer of haze around the ultra-low-density planet Kepler-51d likely obscures not only the strange planet's ...

Life on Earth is a precious thing, especially given what astronomers know about the visible universe. Although researchers have so far identified over 6,000 exoplanets beyond our solar system, only a ...

The findings, which imply that molten planets may be quite common, suggest astronomers may need to be more cautious about ...