A telescope’s last view

Astronomers discover the last three planets the Kepler telescope observed before going dark.

Jennifer Chu | MIT News Office • mit
May 30, 2023 ~7 min

New zone could expand search for habitable planets

Researchers suggest a new way to expand the search for habitable planets that takes into account a zone not previously considered.

Morgan Sherburne-Michigan • futurity
May 26, 2023 ~7 min


Astronomers just saw a star eat a planet – an astrophysicist on the team explains the first-of-its-kind discovery

Stars begin to expand when they run out of fuel and can become thousands of times larger, consuming any planets in the way. For the first time, astronomers have witnessed one such event.

Morgan MacLeod, Postdoctoral Fellow in Theoretical Astrophysics, Harvard University • conversation
May 10, 2023 ~8 min

In a first, astronomers spot a star swallowing a planet

Earth will meet a similar fate in 5 billion years.

Jennifer Chu | MIT News Office • mit
May 3, 2023 ~7 min

New look at planet-forming ‘donut’ is most detailed yet

A new study presents the most detailed image ever of the inner region of planet forming disks that resemble dusty infrared donuts.

Laura Bailey-Michigan • futurity
May 1, 2023 ~5 min

Could ‘terminator zones’ on far off planets harbor life?

Regions on exoplanets called "terminator zones" could be prime sites for liquid water and possibly harbor life, a new study shows.

Lucas Van Wyk Joel-UC Irvine • futurity
March 20, 2023 ~6 min

Scientists have new tool to estimate how much water might be hidden beneath a planet’s surface

In the search for life elsewhere in the Universe, scientists have traditionally looked for planets with liquid water at their surface. But, rather than flowing

Cambridge University News • cambridge
March 15, 2023 ~5 min

Humanity’s quest to discover the origins of life in the universe

Scientists from the University of Cambridge, ETH Zurich, Harvard University, and the University of Chicago have founded the Origins Federation, which will

Cambridge University News • cambridge
March 8, 2023 ~5 min


Distant star TOI-700 has two potentially habitable planets orbiting it – making it an excellent candidate in the search for life

With more than 5,000 known exoplanets, astronomers are shifting their focus from discovering additional distant worlds to identifying which are good candidates for further study.

Andrew Vanderburg, Assistant Professor of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) • conversation
March 8, 2023 ~8 min

Seti: alien hunters get a boost as AI helps identify promising signals from space

Can artificial intelligence transform the search for alien intelligence?

Michael Garrett, Sir Bernard Lovell chair of Astrophysics and Director of Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, University of Manchester • conversation
Feb. 1, 2023 ~7 min

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