Help keep Salon independent

Topic: exoplanets

(H. Armstrong Roberts/ClassicStock via Getty Images)

Does alien life smell like the sea?

Carlyn Zwarenstein

Geyser on Jupiter's moon Europa (Getty Images/MARK GARLICK/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY)

Why icy alien oceans could harbor life

Artist’s impression of a sub-Earth-mass planet orbiting Barnard’s star (ESO/M. Kornmesser)

Relatively close exoplanet discovered

Exoplanet HD 189733b (NASA/ESO/M. Kornmesser)

A stinky exoplanet rains molten glass

Advertisement:

Volcanic exoplanet, illustration (NASA, ESA, CSA, Dani Player)

Exoplanet exploding with molten lava

An artist's impression of exoplanet WASP-69b orbiting its host star. (Adam Makarenko/W. M. Keck Observatory)

Should we redefine habitable planets?

This artist's concept shows what the exoplanet WASP-17 b could look like. (NASA, ESA, CSA, Ralf Crawford (STScI))

Potential alien planets spotted in 2023

Artistic rendering of the possible view from LHS 3154b towards its low mass host star. Given its large mass, LHS 3154b probably has a Neptune-like composition. (Penn State, CC BY-NC-ND)

Planet discovered is too big for its sun

Advertisement:

The artist's conception shows a hypothetical planet with two moons orbiting in the habitable zone of a red dwarf star. (NASA/D. Aguilar/Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics)

A new target in search for alien life

Elizabeth Hlavinka

Image shows a visualisation of the huge, glowing planetary body produced by a planetary collision. (Mark Garlick)

Astronomers see post-planetary collision

This artist's concept shows what the TRAPPIST-1 planetary system may look like, based on available data about the planets' diameters, masses and distances from the host star, as of February 2018. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)

An astrophysicist on alien life

Elizabeth Hlavinka

LP 791-18 d, shown here in an artist's concept, is an Earth-size world about 90 light-years away. (NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Chris Smith (KRBwyle))

Are volcanoes needed for alien life?

Advertisement:

Artist’s impression of an aurora and the surrounding radiation belt of the ultracool dwarf LSR J1835+3259. (Chuck Carter / Melodie Kao / Heising-Simons Foundation)

Massive auroras in another solar system

This illustration conceptualizes the swirling clouds identified by the James Webb Space Telescope in the atmosphere of the exoplanet VHS 1256 b. (NASA, ESA, CSA, J. Olmsted (STScI))

Webb eyes exoplanet with water, methane

Astronauts on the Alien Planet Discover Plant Life. (Getty Images/gorodenkoff)

Which planets might actually have life?

Artist’s conception of a rocky Earth-mass exoplanet, called Kepler-1649c, orbiting a red dwarf star. (NASA/Ames Research Center/Daniel Rutter)

The planet down the block is a lot

Advertisement:

Earth with a dunce cap, and a UFO passing by (Photo illustration by Salon/Getty Images)

Are we primitive compared to aliens?

The Green Bank Telescope is seen in Green Bank, West Virginia on May 28, 2018. Green Bank is part of the US Radio Quiet Zone, where wireless telecommunications signals are banned to prevent transmissions interfering with a number of radio telescopes in the area. (ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)

Macy Huston, Jason Wright

This artist’s impression shows the planet orbiting the Sun-like star HD 85512 in the southern constellation of Vela (The Sail). This planet is one of sixteen super-Earths discovered by the HARPS instrument on the 3.6-metre telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory. This planet is about 3.6 times as massive as the Earth and lies at the edge of the habitable zone around the star, where liquid water, and perhaps even life, could potentially exist. (ESO/M. Kornmesser/Nick Risinger)

Super-Earths: Larger and more habitable

Chris Impey - The Conversation

Exoplanet with moons, illustration (Getty Images/PHOTOSTOCK-ISRAEL/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY)

A real life "Waterworld" planet

Advertisement:

Digitally created space scene with the orbital view on the Earth-like planet and it's moons (Getty Images/Lev Savitskiy)

Two new Earth-like planets discovered

This artist’s impression shows a close-up view of Proxima d, a planet candidate recently found orbiting the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the Solar System. The planet is believed to be rocky and to have a mass about a quarter that of Earth. Two other planets known to orbit Proxima Centauri are visible in the image too: Proxima b, a planet with about the same mass as Earth that orbits the star every 11 days and is within the habitable zone, and candidate Proxima c, which is on a longer five-year orbit around the star. (ESO/L. Calçada)

New planet in our galactic neighborhood

The James Webb Space Telescope hovering over Earth, concept (Photo illustration by Salon/Getty Images)

Astronomy doubles down on search for ET

ARTIST’S RENDITION OF A NEWLY-DISCOVERED JUPITER-LIKE EXOPLANET ORBITING A WHITE DWARF, OR DEAD STAR. THIS SYSTEM IS EVIDENCE THAT PLANETS CAN SURVIVE THEIR HOST STAR’S EXPLOSIVE RED GIANT PHASE AND IS THE VERY FIRST CONFIRMED PLANETARY SYSTEM THAT SERVES AS AN ANALOG TO THE FATE OF THE SUN AND JUPITER IN OUR OWN SOLAR SYSTEM. (W. M. Keck Observatory/Adam Makarenko)

A glimpse into our solar system's future

« Previous

Page: 1

Next »

Fearless journalism
in your inbox every day

Sign up for our free newsletter

• • •