Terrestrial planet
May 17, 2018
Two articles in Science News April 28 and May 12, 2018, focus on what we have learned about the 5000 possible exoplanets Kepler has found. Now we await […]
July 15, 2017
Since wet chemists on Earth have not reinvented life from scratch—not one self-reproducing living critter, nor even a self-serving prion–we can probably assume that it’s not […]
June 22, 2017
WASHINGTON — From the lovable, candy-munching E.T. to the deadly Xenomorphs from the “Alien” movies, science-fiction stories are bursting with all kinds of alien encounters. But […]
May 25, 2017
Scientists have confirmed that all seven planets in the TRAPPIST-1 system circle their star in a sort of gravitational lockstep with one another. The orbits of […]
May 17, 2017
KELT-11b will help astronomers develop the best tools for assessing habitability or possible life on distant exoplanets. Since the largest exoplanets are the easiest to spot […]
May 13, 2017
Research suggests that gravitational interactions forced Mars out of the asteroid belt and toward the sun about 120 million years after the birth of the solar […]
May 6, 2017
The conditions for habitable exoplanets in the TRAPPIST-1 system might depend on the presence of large moons — and Earth reveals clues to why. While we […]
February 25, 2017
Discovering several Earth-size planets around TRAPPIST-1 means the likelihood of finding life within the habitable zones of other star systems could be much greater than previously […]
February 23, 2017
For the first time ever, astronomers have discovered seven Earth-size planets orbiting a nearby star — and these new worlds could hold life. This cluster of […]