For decades, science fiction treated alien planets like Earth with a different paint job. This video shows how real exoplanet discoveries changed that, forcing writers to imagine harsher climates, ...

Planets are usually defined by the star they orbit. Take away the star, and a planet becomes almost impossible to find. This is because almost every method astronomers use to detect planets depends on ...

(via minutephysics) This video is about the interesting and often-misunderstood story of the asteroids, and how they lost their planet-hood status; more recently than you may think!

(via PBS Space Time) There are lots of reasons to search for planets around other stars—exoplanets. A big one is to find other places in the universe that might harbor life. We only know of one such ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Leslie Katz covers the intersection of culture, science and tech. A yellowish-orange glow bathes Phainoterra, a planet of dramatic ...