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Topic: exoplanets (page 2)

ALMA, in which ESO is a partner, and the SPHERE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope have imaged GW Orionis, a triple star system with a peculiar inner region. Unlike the flat planet-forming discs we see around many stars, GW Orionis features a warped disc, deformed by the movements of the three stars at its centre. The ALMA image (left) shows the disc’s ringed structure, with the innermost ring separated from the rest of the disc. The SPHERE observations (right) allowed astronomers to see for the first time the shadow of this innermost ring on the rest of the disc, which made it possible for them to reconstruct its warped shape. (ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), ESO/Exeter/Kraus et al.)

A planet orbiting three stars?

Originally classified as an asteroid, Oumuamua is an object estimated to be about 230 by 35 meters (800 ft x 100 ft) in size, travelling through our solar system. (Getty Images/Aunt_Spray)

A new quarrel over an "alien" asteroid

Outspace orbital view of planets and moons (Getty Images/Lev Savitskiy)

How moons are made

Planet Uranus (Getty Images)

The mysteries of Uranus' oceans

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)

Stars aligned to reveal this exoplanet

This illustration shows a night-side view of the exoplanet WASP-76b. The ultra-hot giant exoplanet has a day side where temperatures climb above 2400 degrees Celsius, high enough to vaporise metals. Strong winds carry iron vapour to the cooler night side where it condenses into iron droplets. To the left of the image, we see the evening border of the exoplanet, where it transitions from day to night. (ESO/M. Kornmesser)

The planet with iron rain

Ann Druyan (Yurie Kwon/Beck Media/Getty Images)

Ann Druyan on the optimism of "Cosmos"

(Marcelo Hernandez/Getty Images)

Even planets have their (size) limits

Natalie Hinkel - The Conversation

This illustration shows NASA’s Dragonfly rotorcraft-lander approaching a site on Saturn’s exotic moon, Titan. Taking advantage of Titan’s dense atmosphere and low gravity, Dragonfly will explore dozens of locations across the icy world, sampling and measuring the compositions of Titan's organic surface materials to characterize the habitability of Titan’s environment and investigate the progression of prebiotic chemistry. (NASA/JHU-APL)

Humanity's space travel plans, 2020–2030

This illustration shows the white dwarf WDJ0914+1914 and its Neptune-like exoplanet. Since the icy giant orbits the hot white dwarf at close range, the extreme ultraviolet radiation from the star strips away the planet’s atmosphere. While most of this stripped gas escapes, some of it swirls into a disc, itself accreting onto the white dwarf. (ESO/M. Kornmesser)

A dissolving exoplanet's prophesy

(Caltech)

Meet the weirdest planet in the galaxy

(Marcelo Hernandez/Getty Images)

Exoplanets better suited for life?

Mike Wehner - BGR

This illustration made available by NASA shows the Kepler Space Telescope. (NASA via AP)

The most bizarre star in the galaxy

An illustration of the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) which found the Earth-sized planet HD 21749c. (NASA via AP)

TESS finds its first Earth-sized planet

(Getty/dottedhippo)

We now have a catalog of exoplanets

Artist's conception of SIMP J01365663+0933473, an object with 12.7 times the mass of Jupiter, but a magnetic field 200 times more powerful than Jupiter's. This object is 20 light-years from Earth. (Chuck Carter, NRAO/AUI/NSF)

Rogue planet lurks in Earth's 'hood

An artist's conception of what the surface of the exoplanet TRAPPIST-1f may look like, based on available data about its diameter, mass and distance from the host star. (NASA/AP)

These two planets may look like Earth 2

(Getty/titoOnz)

Study: Methane changes habitability zone

Keith A. Spencer

(Shutterstock/Salon)

The planet where it rains sunscreen

Keith A. Spencer

Artist's rendition of star KELT-9 and its orbiting planet KELT-9B. (Robert Hurt/NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Bring your sunglasses

Keith A. Spencer

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