Tag Archives: exoplanets

A New Potentially Habitable Planet from TESS

Posted on January 7, 2020 by Alex R. Howe

This week is what many call the “Super Bowl of Astronomy”: the winter meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS), held this year in Honolulu. I am not there, sadly, but I am involved in one of the big press … Continue reading →

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What’s coming in Astronomy in the 2020s

Posted on December 30, 2019 by Alex R. Howe

At this time of year, many news sites, blogs, and others like to post a year in review…I’m not going to do that. It’s been a long, crazy year, much like the four-ish years before that. The news cycle has … Continue reading →

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Jim Peebles: Co-Winner of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics

Posted on December 10, 2019 by Alex R. Howe

Today is one of the most important days of the year in my line of work: the Nobel Prize award ceremony. The Nobel Peace Prize probably gets the most attention (good and bad) of the six prizes from the public, … Continue reading →

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TESS Lifts Off

Posted on April 19, 2018 by Alex R. Howe

NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) lifted off on a SpaceX rocket last night. TESS is a follow-up to the wildly successful Kepler mission that will hunt for transiting planets—that is, planets that pass in front of their stars, blocking … Continue reading →

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Kepler-1625b I: The First Exomoon…Maybe

Posted on July 30, 2017 by Alex R. Howe

So, the big science news of the day is the potential discovery of the first known “exomoon”—that is, a moon orbiting an extrasolar planet. (Scientific paper here.) Scientists have been looking for such moons for years, only to turn up … Continue reading →

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Day 2 at the #AAS230: Warm Jupiters, Human Spaceflight, and Other Stories

Posted on June 6, 2017 by Alex R. Howe

Artist’s rendition of the mysterious Planet Nine. The second day of the AAS Conference has concluded with still more fascinating tales from the world of astronomy. We begin with the tale of the Rosetta mission to Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, which concluded … Continue reading →

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NASA Discovers the First “Earth-Like” Planet for the Third Time

Posted on July 25, 2015 by Alex R. Howe

There’s been buzz in the news about the latest planet discovered by NASA’s Kepler space telescope, Kepler-452b. It’s being hailed as a major discovery. It’s the first ever Earth-sized planet found in the habitable zone of a…boy, this sounds familiar, … Continue reading →

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NASA finds an ice-cold planet right next door

Posted on April 27, 2014 by Alex R. Howe

You may have heard about the recent discovery of an ice cold “brown dwarf” or “star” right next door in our Solar Neighborhood. The object, which goes by the telephone number* WISE J085510.83-071442.5, is only 7.2 light-years from our Solar … Continue reading →

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The planet that thinks it’s a comet

Posted on March 6, 2013 by Alex R. Howe

With all the talk of comets lately, let’s take a look at what happens when planets start acting like them. But surely, no planet could have a crazy, elongated orbit like a comet, right? They’re too big to get kicked … Continue reading →

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Planets of failed stars

Posted on December 23, 2012 by Alex R. Howe

A brown dwarf is a failed star. It’s about the size of Jupiter, but anywhere from 13 to 80 times as massive. It is too small to shine by burning hydrogen, like a star, but it is massive enough to … Continue reading →

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